“i’m not their hero / but that doesn’t mean that i wasn’t brave”

More cleaning out my trunk of works that never found a publication home (ETA: though, actually, I’d forgotten this was actually was published), this one neither Greek myth nor farcical. Also, not rhyme royal, but rather a sestina written in part as a demonstration that it’s a good form for narrative poems with an obsessive theme and the exact right size story. (I’ve written others, but this was the most successful.)

At Death’s Door (333 words) by lnhammer
Fandom: Original Work, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came - Robert Browning
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Afterlife, Quests, Alternate Universe - Desert Setting, Poetry, narrative poetry, Sestina, Desert
Summary:

Within the waste, dawn was diluted light
not yet tinged with colors other than shades
of black. Soon molten sun would stream high
above him, washing the bare world sere and pale
with the heat of desiccation, but for now,
small mercies, it was cool enough to walk

Or, what happens when “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” is retold as a desert southwest AU.

---L.

Subject quote from I’m Not Your Hero, Tegan & Sara.