The Twilight Machine

This is part 4 of 4 of Magnificent Beasts
An F‑22 Raptor silhouetted against a vast twilight sky, flying alone with a sense of solemn aloftness.
The uncrowned king, aloft.

Invocation

Forged for supremacy,
for skies of worthy foes.
Forged in the dying breath of the Cold War,
he came after the wars of glory,
before the ghosts.


Prophecy

Thus was the Raptor: prophecy, unfulfilled.
A war god without a war,
a sovereign without subjects.

He does not roar. He whispers. And empires tremble.


Unchallenged

A relic of code and carbon,
yet the herald of a new age.

Forged to inherit the throne,
the final heir of blood and steel—
only the portent, not culmination.


Hollow

They crowned no rival, but named his successor.
He did not fail; none arose to meet him.

His reign hollow: unproven, unspent.
His only trophy: a balloon.


Epitaph

The king on an unearned throne,
the champion without a war.