[A pale ode from my teenage years to Moorcock's Eternal Champion]
A thousand worlds have I seen,
Surfaces flamed as if earthbound suns,
Disease and pain spreading in the wind;
Armies of Chaos, battalions of Order,
Sweeping across spheres with blade and torch;
The holocausts of vengeance and greed
Humbling the golden cultures of millions
Where even Time itself had failed.
A Balance exists in Eternity's confusion
Protecting Intelligence from encroachments,
Foul and fair, of meddling Chaos and Order.
And to keep this middle road alive
Have I fought through a thousand lives,
A million sorrowful and weary years
Caught in what I have been and will be,
The Greatest Warrior bested by himself.
All have forever believed me hero
Champion of the land and People.
But look now and see no hero at all
For I am barely a man
Lost in the identities I possess.
Seeking but never finding my name True
I walk through Eternity devoid of mortality
Yet man most mortal am I, The Eternal Champion.
