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By Emmanuel Williams

September 23, 2026

“Everyone creates the thing they dread…” – Ultron, Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

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And if I dread the inevitable

I run in the opposite direction

Only to see it on the horizon

Hidden in all that’s fallible

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My parents argue loud as a concert

And as I hide in my bedroom

Tuning them out

I start screaming along to the music

*

And all I see is ugliness

So I preselect beautiful things

Until I get deep enough to see

Sometimes ugly is just right beneath

*

I may want to run

But still I stand

Even though within

All steadiness gone

*

If I move with you

I grow with you

I heal with you

Without growing fonder

And I hunt with you

I fight with you

Get drunk with you

Without growing stronger

So I hide from you

I die from you

Get lost with you

But only sink further

Wanting you

Haunting you

Dreaming of you

While never getting closer

*

I made you hate me

Made you leave me

Made you suffer

…Thought I’d be tougher

Tougher than thou

As I sit here alone

On the darkest of thrones

Thinking of the slain

The decay of their bones

Thinking of their homes

I have now come to own

Is this royalty?

Or safety?

Crafty?

Stately?

A reason to kill me?

Seek me?

Follow me?

*

“Had to kill the other guy.

Wouldn’t have been my first call…”

– Ultron, Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

*

Postscript.

Hard work comes and goes

Then you miss it

But it’s all you want to do

It’s your mistress you’ll never leave

So when it returns

You must embrace it

And just like that

We’re hard workers.

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