The darkness opens
A cold wind blows from
The empty maw

You feel drawn in
You feel
Tempted

A step is taken
Stolen from the distance between
By an unseen thief

As you near
Unwilling yet willing
You are engulfed
By sorrow
The chill of regret
Of hope dwindled to nothing

As are you

Nothing

No one

Nowhere

All is futility
With a singular recourse
Succumb!

The darkness opens
To show you YOU
And welcome you
Your despair its sustenance

But

Truth and deceit are
Brethren
Separated by perception
By suggestion
By facts twisted
Hidden and revealed

You have to see and to know and to believe
That in that darkness
Though it exists within you
Within all
You must be the light
A flame no false promises can extinguish

You must become the fire
And reach into every corner of the limitless abyss
Though, with no limits
There are no corners

But

Such a contradiction
A paradox
Is nothing when, against the all consuming night,
You stand tall
Emblazoned
Fierce and brave

For

Only you can save you
Only you can find hope when there is
Seemingly
None
Only you are the champion
The hero
You need

You

Hey there Sinners. Here's my latest entry into the LayethTheSmackDown Multigenre Mashup!

This time, we had to write a poem about a superhero. Of course, I wrote the book HERO, where everyone has a superpower apart from one boy, but this was different (not least because it's poetry). I wanted this piece to follow on from the previous chapters, so it continues the Source story. I imagine you've no idea, after reading the above, how that might happen. Well, all I can say is, you'll (hopefully) see!

I hope you enjoyed the poem. In a world where Marvel and DC bring us superheroes every day, we forget that we, ourselves, can be the best hero we every need.

Oh, for the image at the top of this chapter, I used ideogram.ai, a brilliant new AI tool from by the great allenlau, co-founder of Wattpad itself! Try it out!