Mike Ashkewe

I am the stray thought that hides beneath the surface.
I am the sideways glance that undresses
I am the touch that lingers too long in a familiar place.
I am the question that is never asked
I am the kiss that should never have happened but did.
I am the longing in your heart that goes unfulfilled.
I am the lust that consumes like wild fire
I am the words never said but expressed just the same.
i am the thousand possibilities never realized.
I am the fear of a wrong choice made
I am the love on a distant shore.
I am the loyalty tested.

I am forged in fire and given shape by hands who craft me for survival to feed the hungry and war’s fury plunged into the heart of a foe.
A tool to some.
A weapon to others.
Instinct runs through your boiling and screaming blood.
I am perfection honed to an edge so sharp that Gods and mortals alike will be cut.
At your side or in your hand, you guide me as you see fit without judgment or prejudice.
Do you make a decision that will ripple throughout the life around you?
I have been made of obsidian and of iron mined from the Earth itself.
Do I aid in your survival or do you use me to take life?
Countless souls have fallen before my touch and many more will come after them.
Do you give into the whispers of blood shouting in your ear or give mercy an audience?
I am only an instrument who plays through a symphony of blood.
Your muscles tighten and I await with anticipation.
Give yourself over to me and I will give you what you want.
The moment passes and the impulse subsides
Know that I am there just beneath all your civility.
I am passion, I am vengeance, all i need is your thirst to be quenched for us to be satisfied
We will meet again someday like old rivals and even friends.
Your restraint can only go so far.
I know all your darkness and i know what price you’ll pay
Your lies of forgiveness will be broken
You cannot resist me forever

Paths that crossed for reasons unknown and bonded deep and true
Words spoken through glances and smiles spread volumes of memories ever eternal.
You held me up when I was in tireless toil and in return I shared the joyfulness inside my heart.
Fast companions in the adventure path ahead and never did we fear the roads as long as we faced it together.
Never did we question each other’s loyalty and understood the price of such commitments.
Nights never seemed dark and lonely when you were always there to be confidant and holder of all that I was and could hope to be.
The trust eternal.
Possibilities swam around us but never found home in the familiar but we knew the waters were always safe there.
I never felt as safe as I did with my back to you as yours to mine as we would protect each other with no quarter being given to any foe who dared come into our sacred space.

Snow upon ground disappears under foot as I effortlessly glide through the brush of ancient birch and pine.
Delicate and silent in the of the Odin sleep of summer’s distant memories, this landscape ruled by ice and frost.
Fallen tears from winter’s embrace sparkle in the moonlight as I dash forward relentlessly towards the throne of my frozen kingdom.
Magnificent light bathes the landscape in the brilliance of the hunter’s moon.
My moon.
I am cunning and wit given form of red and white and I am undeterred by those who would hunt me and underestimated by those who are my prey.
A scent on the the breeze alerts me to something who has decided to disturb the stillness.
Is it hunter or prey?
Do I stalk them from afar or pounce on them and take my chance with the chase?
I already know and my four legs are in motion running and the blood pumps faster than the my heart can take and I am alive.
I run and I run and I look sharp eyes and see the foot falls of an innocent who doesn’t know Mother Earth has already decided it’s fate.
Our eyes meet and faster ever forward does my body move and a quick flash of teeth and bone It is done.
Life paints the snow a deep crimson and the forest is again quiet.
The price is paid to the thief king in the night and I retreat til I can once more reclaim my frozen seat over the ever timeless winter and night.

Torn away from lands of dance and song to prisons of mercy and watched over by an invisible God that I do not recognize as Creator strips my language from my tongue and replaces it with new universal gibberish.

Spirit expunged from my mouth and replace with hollowness and faith conceived in fear and not of respect. Spirit still clings to me as it is washed without concern as they take the color from mine to match theirs.

Assimilated, forgotten and brought to the white savior and longing for brother,sister and those who spoke to the unseen who glided the forest of ancestors and ran through fields unmolested.

A history of forgeries and half truths disguised as gospel and forbidden knowledge of true self buried under guilt and held in place for table scraps at tables waited on by others screaming for their rightful place.

Freezing nights wrap icy tendrils inviting an escape to oblivion but we endure despite it. Manufactured clothes that reek of chemical and moan angrily against the skin of the taken, the stolen, the first.

Shattered, left feeble and empty handed, we will stand tall in the stories of those who shall listen. Blood soaked land and graves of the hidden mark their inhumanity to be uncovered by machine guided justice. Thunder falls from the sky as something lurches forward from time immaterial to shake ground and foe alike.

A reckoning comes and is led by fire, word and need, our pain writes a path forward for those left behind.

A contract between country and kin signed in forged metal and delivering what is called upon.
Sworn to a sacred pact sealed in steel and honored with aim swift and true.
More than a uniform or banner, standing tall for those who cannot.
Pledging an oath to those who will never know your name and history may forget.
Blood, sweat and tears force you forward and move broken bodies to screams of victory.
The price of freedom paid in full and with a glad heart.
Grinning at an uncertain fate.
Bring me home should I fall but let the ink of life stain the ground as a final message.
Stalwart even in the face of Armageddon.

Gentle whispers of the first people fill the spaces between the machines of man.
Songs of joy and pride follow the wind across the land and speak to those who listen.
Wisdom of elders soothes the spirit when the noise of the city threatens to overwhelm
Laughter from the blades of grass as the sun fills the Earth with warmth.
We fly above concrete and steel and tap into the unseen power that only those of blood know.
The ethereal touch of our ancestors guides us without fear

A battered ship upon crushing waves threatening to swallow all
Discarded fragments of what was once cherished lay shattered on cold decks.
Echoes of distant words that warmed the soul now reverberate only bitterness and regret.
Memories of smiles remembered in mirrors reflect sadness and loneliness
Abandoned familiarity without warmth.
A void where a heart once grew, now it slowly begins to decay without the glow of another to share its space.
Blindly sailing into unyielding freezing black seas on tattered sails now traveled alone.
Forward into uncertainty and into a night which may never end.