There must be balance. Not a coin but has
Two sides. Day and Night; good and bad;
Right and wrong.  It’s just the way things are.
Someone Dreams.
His dreams are bright, this boy-
At night he lays himself down
With anticipation of what the night
Reveals to him. He walks that landscape
Without fear. Darkness has no part of
This one, for hope is his, and all
Happiness follows. Every place
Is his place, and what he sees
Can be made his. The only regret,
Waking each morning to
A more ordinary world.
But this golden child has duties too,
His light to oppose the dark.
There must be balance. So what
Do you tell that one who must be
Nightmare? Waking, he finds the world
An unjust place, hurting without cause,
No way to escape. Not even at night-
For he does not walk in bright dreams
Like the other, no. To him is given
Dark, and cold, and sharp thoughts
To cut others with. Does he enjoy this
Role, to shadow the hopes of others
When he himself is so shadowed?
He plays it without flaw, and yet
You would offer him the choice
To change, condemn another
To this darker life, to be the sacrifice
To this power game, a push and shove
Between Good and Evil.
The dreams of the Nightmare cannot be
His own. He suffers that others may suffer,
That he might be blamed.
He would take that out- and why not?
There must be balance, but he owes it nothing,
No duty when it has called him to the dark,
For how could it blame him, being what he is?
What it has made of him, and that alone?

* this poem was inspired by a story/RP created and written by a friend of mine. The story is up on the web at: The Dreamer: the Starting Point.