Heritage & Canker

[written_leaves]

Yet for all your wisdom, you did not see
That a wound cannot be filled with shadows

A pair for Denethor, who obviously was once a better leader than the unstable wreckage he was becoming by the time the narrative reaches him. The first addresses his pride and claim on the leadership, the other his clinging to it by choosing to use a poisoned tool as a source of 'wisdom'.

Heritage

Oh Steward of Gondor, of the ruling house,
You forget your own history -
Lost in time,
Lost beneath the banners and proud lineage,
Lost in the tales of your ancestor's bravery and bejeweled
Tapestries of great names, those
Great names whose faces bear the image
Of your own,
The image of your son, your eldest and your pride.
Do not forget your beginning,
The King who made you what you are.
This land lays in your palm as a trust,
The hands of the people serve
Him,
Through you.
Do not forget, lest you stumble and fall -
Lest your King return one day to his own
To find his own knows him
Not.

-
Canker

Canker gnawed upon your heart
Bereft as it was of your pride, your joy.
Half your heart already dead,
E'en before the madness overtook you.
You sought knowledge and power
Seeking to fill that void,
Yet for all your wisdom, you did not see
That a wound cannot be filled with shadows;
They neither fill nor heal, nor drown out the
Flittings of memories,
Winged insects unseen in the falling dusk.

You turned to hear them and heard a
Whisper of an unseen presence
Behind the cloth-drawn windows, in the darkness.
It whispers to you, calls to you,
Lights under your desperate touch
As with moonlight and
Fire.

Denethor -
This light will not illumine your path,
This foreknowledge will not save you.
O Leader of ashes, Steward of secrets, of
Whispers in the dark,
Bearer of this flame at your breast
That beats and flares
Through your withered hands.

-