I don’t remember the sun. The first time word and meaning became one. But whatever thought I had could not hold true to the feast before me. I would like to say how the fingers of heaven reach out through the black smoke of the valley torn from battle around me. How my comrades glisten with the sweat of death and the valor of up rising beside me. But alas, it is not and I am alone.

So come lie by my side and watch this sun as it will set but not rise, not rise again for me. Not rise again for the day, the day of days, the day of pride and remembering. The day of courage and change. Of love and truth. A truth so stubborn that still it burns from beneath the silent ocean that flows to the ground around me.

Terra Firma be mine. Hold me now that I have fallen. Forgive me for what I could not be. Listen to these humble words and with them hold this proof, this testament. Be my witness, my child, that I may pass on the truth of truths, I am alive.

I live, but I only now know for certain at this, my end. Listen for me as I could not back when the sweet dew of truth found its way to my lips kissed with the words of Darla. So decadent this taste that my mouth froze solid my actions, my voice and lowered my head to hide my thoughts.

Scream for me and the years I watched. Be a shaft of molten rock that explodes into the sky. Be a tower and rise throughout the universe for all to know that what had been said has been proven and now is done, that you, that we, are alive.