I met him on the corner of Second and Main

One afternoon, walking home from nowhere.

He stood so still, I tried not to stare.

Benjamin Knight, military sniper, code-name Reaper.

In his voice I heard dark rooms filled with secret deserts

And the sound of bones breaking from

The mercenary desolation of subsisting.

But in his eyes I saw the shadows, darker than any nightmare,

Splinter around the dreams he keeps locked away.