Don't talk to me
about ethics.
Dire necessity,
consuming desire,
those are my virtues.
My methods, arguably,
have been a matter of dispute.
While they dispute, I act.

I work with what works.
A price is paid, anyway, always;
What matters is the result.
Tyr understands - he, too,
values the spirit
over law's letter.
We are not that different, at heart.

What drives me is me.
Can fire stop burning?
I am the hangman who serves life.
One sacrifice leads to another.
Foresight does not grant freedom.
The path ahead is clear:
Do I really have a choice?

One of my kind
is quite enough, though,
for one multiverse--
if there were more,
or if there was none,
you would even now
hear Gjallarhorn blow.

© Michaela Macha

License: This poem may be freely distributed, provided it remains
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This work by Michaela Macha is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives License.

Artwork by Holly Hansel, inspired by Neil Gaiman's American Gods.