leslie fish

The Last Centurion (Rory's Song)

by

thebastardofgloucester:

As promised, here is the filk created by my friend Araxie and I (though mostly by her), a pair of hopelessly obsessed Whovians united in our unabashed adoration of Rory (Roranicus Pondicus) Williams/Pond.  

It is based upon the Rudyard Kipling poem The Roman Centurion Song. It has since been set to music by self-professed anarchist, alto, and filk icon Leslie Fish.

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The Last Centurion’s Song

Doctor, you bid me come with you, and let her lie. What then?

She’ll wait for you two thousand years, while you cheat time again.

You always run, you always fly, you take no time to grieve.

If she must stay, then so will I. You cannot make me leave.

***

The universe has come undone, the stars no longer shine.

Now hasten on to patch the cracks, but leave both me and mine.

The future calls as time runs out, a world that you must mend,

So leave me now, but I’ve no doubt I’ll see you at the end.

***

I know that you must think me mad, and you may yet be right

As I slog on through endless days and sleepless starless nights.

Yet I will stay to keep her safe. I choose to bear this load.

To find my place in time and space, I take the winding road.

***

I wait for her in hope that I in waiting may atone

Not plastic now, but mine again, a man of flesh and bone.

She thought me human, and she died—cut down by my own hand.

In love and penance I’ll abide on time’s unwinding strand.

***

I’ll take the steady, slower path through heavy years and long.

I’ll watch Rome fall and Britain rise, and still I will press on.

The past is gone, the future dark, the present is a blur

The world grows cold, and life grows stark, yet I’ll remain with her.

***

Let me stay here, for Amy’s sake, as long as I have will,

Until I fail, or die, or break, or fall to greater skill,

I’ll fight both Cyberman and Pict, and all who dare to creep

From earth or sky or monster’s crypt to wake my love from sleep.

***

Doctor, I care not for your fears. You tell me I must go,

That she won’t feel the passing years, that I am doomed—I know.

She is my heart, my soul, my mind—the only love I’ve known.

You go, but I will stay behind so she won’t be alone.

Fish’s recording can be found (and downloaded! Legally!) here