Last One Standing

I have been defending you relentlessly. I have fought for you over and over again. I have been your entire army. I am the cavalry that wins all your battles, and just like the war ends, I end. I am the martyr that keeps your streak from being tarnished and tainted by failure. I keep you from losing, but in the end, I lose myself. You would think I would have stopped fighting by now, but I am still in the fray, bleeding from my heart and screaming from my skin. The arrows are piercing me. You would think you would have noticed your only soldier by now, but then again, you don’t notice anything. Don’t you know there’s a war going on? Don’t you know that you’re in between every conflict? Don’t you know I am dying for you? I am the armor and the warriors and the spears and the knives and the shields and the horses and the generals and the footmen. I am everything you could ever want, but I am completely and utterly exposed on the front line. Your enemies are rushing down the mountain of us, cascading down the cliff of everything for which I am trying to fight. I have no chance of surviving, but I am surviving anyways. I guess my strength always came from you. In the end, I am the last one standing, the last one fighting for you. Now there is just the carnage of all the mistakes we kept letting seep in, and even though I made it, I am black and blue from fighting for you. You would think a parade in my honor would have been announced by now. You would think I would be taken down grand halls with marble walls, through your castle and into the throne room. You would think you would be standing there, waiting to thank me, waiting to hand me a medal for all I have done, waiting to hug me, to knight me. You would think you would acknowledge me, at least for a second, for my duty to your name, for all my bravery and all my foolishness, for all my loyalty and all my love. For how even with my last breath, my last dying breath, I fought for you. Even as the millions charged, running me over, breaking through all my defenses and overcoming all assails, I fought for you. Even as all the doubts and all the broken promises left me nothing but a chance to surrender, I fought for you. At times, I wonder what would happen if I ever let my white flag run red. Will you notice me when they bring me wrapped in a shroud made of red roses, red roses? Will you ever notice me? I wish you would notice me now, standing and waiting for all our opponents to erode me away. You would think you had the courage to fight for everything you said you believed in. Maybe if you were there with me, we could have held our ground, we could have been the winners against the plague. We could have saved everything, we could have saved us.