The warrior clings,
Claws, fights to fight
Still with bullets in her back
She crawls

The wind howls persistently,
Consistently blows
Against the trees
When they refuse to bow

The water beats and leaks,
Drips on stone
To wear it down, drown it
Even if it takes one hundred
Lives and paths around the Earth

The salmon leap dams
Until their silver flesh
Grows blue and bruised,
Their insides batter,
And still they climb

The birds fly south
A thousand miles from
All they know,
With the threat of frost
On their feathers

When they survive another year,
When the salmon bare children,
When the stone finally moves
And gives way to a new fresh spring,
When the trees crash,
And new life sprouts
From the deadened base,
When the soldier takes the final blow…

These helpless participants
In a world they didn't design
Become the catalyst, key
For a whole new world to blossom and bloom

They're not in it for the thrill
For their health,
While with broken, blackend bodies
They bleed onward

They don't do it
Because they want to
Or because they were encouraged
Or because it was commanded of them

They don't do it because law
And nature demands,
Or because they are programmed to

There's no wealth,
No thoughts of glory
In those moments at the end
When it is "succeed or fail"

They do it because they must.
Because not doing it isn't an option
Because a life without their deeds
Is not life

Because if they don't… their world will die.

It is for this same desire
Same perseverance,
Insistence
Tenacity
Relentlessness
With no option but to keep fighting
No other words but "fight",
No other thoughts but "do"
No other breaths
Than the small gasp of pain
Followed by the determined gulp of air

It is with the same breaths that I cannot cease
Cannot desist
Cannot resign
Cannot send in the white flag
Cannot accept the fate
Cannot let it be

That you are slipping away.

I must take the beatings, and keep fighting.
I must accept the wounds, the bullets,
And keep crawling for you.
I must succeed.

I must keep fighting.
I must keep fighting.
I must keep fighting.
I must keep fighting.

Because dying isn't an option.

The war was won
The new life bloomed
The salmon bred
The birds survived the season

And we will see the light again.

Because it must be.