Dawn Over September – Will Sturman

dog-of-ulthar:

But the center is
here, this coal-fired heart
That wants
like a factory wants to make war

I want peace, I want
rest, but I’ll have it no more
Just one last dawn
over September

I finished listening to Friends at the Table: COUNTER/Weight just before #15DaysofFatT started, so naturally I went into a fugue state and wrote a 6 minute song about the final battle of the campaign for Day 15: Dawn

I’m not sure if this will mean anything to anyone who hasn’t listened to this podcast, but just close your eyes and think about off-brand Gundam, that should do it. And then consider yourself spoiled for the end of the season, but in the vaguest possible terms. Lyrics under the cut:

Am                                              G
I have honored you best as I’m able
F             G                                   Am
Through each blessing left me a scar
Am                   G
Apole, dare I imagine
F                     G               Am
It was your guidance led me this far

C                          Em
We gathered and planned
C                                Em
And talked of life after the end
Dm                                   Em
Dreamed of reunion with comrades and kin
F                       Em                                  G
Our war machines empty, our consciences clear

Am                                                     Em
But I think that I knew my path would end here
Am          Am6               Am
One last dawn over September

Apotine grant me the patience
To hold the foe here on my own
It’s not strength I need, only endurance
The brittle acceptance of stone

Time stretches and blurs
Around statues to hope and despair
One figure golden, the other one dark
My unyielding lance to its unfeeling heart

But the sun will burn both, just the same, just as hot
One last dawn over September

Apoanta, far I have traveled
Fallen, and risen, and crawled
As I bought my own freedom with silence
With my death, I buy it for all

One challenge is remains
Though I feel no fatigue and no pain
It’s enough to stare down on this featureless mask
And imagine it something I could comprehend

Does the husk inside know that its time is at end
In one last dawn over September

Apote forgive me for weeping,
I’ve no lesson this day and no joy
All creatures that greet dawn with singing
Have been scattered, consumed, and destroyed

Two titans of iron
Are the only things left here to die
Thought we’ve spiraled for hours or months, I can’t tell
I don’t feel the heat of the sun bearing nigh

And soon we’ll be nothing but ash in the sky
One last dawn over September

Though I’ll build neither cities nor legions
Apothesa, I don’t want to know
If they’ll call me a fool or a hero
In the last golden war’s fading glow

On a thousand desperate fronts
Dance ship, frame, and doll all as one
But the center is here, this coal-fired heart
That wants like a factory wants to make war

I want peace, I want rest, but I’ll have it no more
Just one last dawn over September

I am the last of my bloodline
The last born to wield this machine
When tyranny’s scion is burning
Who mourns for the friend they had been

My people sing through the void
Refugees, rebels, and ghosts
I am Apokine now, though I flinch at the name
My heart tells me run, but they beg me to stay

And Rigour is silent as we both melt away
One last dawn over September