Days are dark but hope is never gone.

A light in the darkness cannot be quenched.
A star in the sky burns forever entrenched.
Where there is light, the night holds no sway.
And though darkness may come, to dawn it gives way.

A candle held high can be snuffed by a breeze,
But the light still burns on where everyone sees.
No wind can extinguish the soul made of fire
But a heart filled with anguish, is ash on the pyre.

Swords must be sharpened, and arrows made store.
Battle calls harken and the soul readies for war.
No joy in the fighting, though a fierceness and rage
A cagey old badger too cunning to cage.

Grim necessity calls them no glorious foe,
Small petty evils that kill blow by blow.
Yet evil once small may grow large as fate
And so our blades we will sharpen
to take the head of the snake.

But still in the darkness that light is held high.
For it will will live, for it we may die.
That hope in the grimness that dawn will still come
And we ready for battle and pray there is none.

Edge of Darkness copyright © Heather Strickler 2025 all rights reserved.