I AM THE LAST WATCHER The First Age I awoke in a place far far from home It was a new time on a new world It matters not, I was immortal The flat plain before me was alive Birds stirred the air For it was a gathering of tribes And a profound bewilderment lay upon the land My hands were their hands but different These hands could build a city These hands could till the soil These hands could laugh and go on forever Now the great work was upon us A yoke we willing accepted Our numbers were strong, our aim sure, our resolve clear We went forth without want in our task The first city was built The councils of ten assembled The divine plan was in angelic motion I could see the bending grasses I could smell the sea and feel the sun A great tree grew in the heart of the city Laden with fruit never tiring in its immortal sweetness Under the green umbrella cool shade Its power reached into the heavens As if a beacon it guided down the radiant transporters Like streaking rocks of fire We did not mark the days years or centuries We were timeless in this dawn of our mission The days of yore were countless The tribes came and went and yet We remained at our task And thus it was for Generation onto generation of man The Second Age I awoke in a place far far from home I stood at the gate and I saw a vision The plain before me was getting dark There was a deep rumble from the sky a flash in the clouds A line of hot white slivers of light touched the far distant ground A horizon to horizon spectacle of raw power Imperceptible a hoard of wild bulls on silent hooves raged towards me It was a coming storm I did not understand A message that could not be comprehended I could feel the wind I could smell the rain Like a sharp crack of bone shaking thunder The great dragons had landed Black and red were emblazoned upon their standard Standing magnificent before us shining like the sun Heatless waves of light wafted silently from them Their message from on high was wrought unto to us all The choice of what ground each was to defend It was a time of reckoning I remember those seven long years The oratories long the arguments wide Who would  be bound to this oath? When the final decision was made Then the seraphim came lighting up the sky Like Hell's own rain Now the masters of our own destiny we wielded supernatural power No constellation fathers, no Ancient of Days no far distant authority We claimed that scepter of kingship and thrust it to the sky There was no going back I claimed the sovereignty of life itself I could not die in the eternal resurrection Freedom was fresh in the air Let the others go chained to the old defending the irrelevant I was fearless and defiant We were the gods we owned this place Forever Then came the darkness that would turn bitter and cold We knew not the depth of our hard choice We lived in cosmic isolation at the end of the universe A long ranging silence settled on the land like an icy fog A spectral ghost of the past standing unseen among us Something was not right I stood at the gate and before me were the raging bulls of my vision And they were like us They came club and ax in hand to claim their authority They came to claim their ancestral land driving the gods from the city We fled at the blackest of nights watched only by animal eyes The rule of law was now pagan We became them We were the tribes on the plain The Last Age I awoke in a place far far from home My hands were different They were old Immortality had left me without a word I was alone the last of the gods the last of my kind The olden stories were recited by campfire History scratched in the sand A past glory kept alive Through breast beating and ritual We danced and sung in honor of the old days It was all we could do There arose wars among the tribes The old alliances were breaking into wrecks of oblivion New blood born of this soil lived not heaven and earth It was they who were born from pride and recklessness The scepter was now the spear Sweet fruit was now fresh kill Purpose was now division The time of reckoning left its void of darkness upon our souls In my memory I knew of paradise I had escaped my first death Into a world beyond imagination My second death sailed on the wings of vultures My grave would be cold and still The dead are not resurrected With family gathered before me I told them these words: I am the last Watcher I have witnessed the glory from beyond the stars The land from beyond time I have felt the embrace of the winged serpent And the taste of immortality of the gods The first seeds were planted The first song was sung A great praise went forth to the top of the heavens Paradise was ours I was there for the Great War of the Principalities Anu and his legions led us forth invincible and righteous We were greater than the Most Highs Our brilliance was unbounded like Utu like Ra I walked the earth with no fear We were forever the immortals I am the last Watcher In the first days of freedom I rejoiced In the second days of freedom a great stone lintel fell upon my shoulders In the last days of freedom I was laid low The seraphim were gone The city abandoned The river was worked The grave was beckoning I am the last Watcher I sired the Igigi I recited the tales of our greatness I remembered the past A great debate divided us into three A river took one A far off land took another Death took us all For I am the last Watcher

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