This is a guest post by Marissa. Inspiration for this sketch came from this image.

Her rise was swift and decisive,
But the victories did not satisfy.

Every battle was fought again,
Pressed in wax.

Her troops surged through twenty countries
Enemy lines turning like receding ocean tides.

She was still roaring them forward,
With cracking lungs.

Her soldiers pushed deeper.
They would endure.

She wrapped the flag over her shoulders
And the branched bones of a bat’s wings took hold.