Work Text:
A roof, the noise, a starry summer night:
So normal as to cause no comment, then.
A black sky, spangled thoroughly with light
That boys might gaze at, yearning to be men
Who fought the darkness. They could do it. East,
In Europe, or beneath the Arctic ice.
Then he was chosen, brought up from the least,
Reborn, again, again. And what's the price?
He cannot see the stars at night. They're gone.
New York is light-polluted, never dark
Enough to tell the midnight from the dawn.
But children look at him, and Tony Stark,
Their eyes alight with wonder, beyond sense,
The gas of wonder sparking like a flint.
The galaxies fall down, collect, condense
Onto a metal shield, one star aglint.
He is their sky. This is why he was healed.
He girds himself to live, and fight for SHIELD.