Napoleon or Nietzsche

Napoleon or Nietzsche?
L comes before both.
Two great men, two conquerers —
One heir, one man, one emperor.
The power or the poetry;
The empire or the elegy?
The era or the output;
The war on men — the war on __

Am I supposed to choose
Between the leader and the writer?
The philosopher and the artist?
The only time I ever feel wasted
When I pursue what I’m “supposed” to.
No wonder the scorn; no wonder the arrows.
I was born to fly further than history:
I breathe mountain air:
No wonder it isn’t fair.

Blistering command; brittle bulwark:
Should I help build a better future
Or pour fire on their foundations?
Neither yields inclusiveness —
A leader stays well ahead,
And a philosopher lies well outside —
Being in was always out
Of the question —
The question: give the answer,
Or obscure the question?
Can you endure my seriousness
And learn to love fatality?

Anti-Christ, anarchist and bastard:
Protagonist, writer and hero.
No contradiction. No paradox.
Serotonin tells the truth:
Society obscures it all.
Too harsh, too true, too cold —
No — you’re too soft, too false, too supplicant.
Take it from the only one who embraces both — The consciousness and the animal —
For he who tears muscles and smiles
Is he who bears the truth for miles
More than most: For it is not whether you speak the truth,
But whether you listen. No one
Can blame you for no discovering truth —
But I will destroy you who do not listen.
Scorn only the stupid: they have been gifted
The genius of mankind, and still interrupt.
“Whereof one cannot speak, one must be silent” —
Why, then, do you raise your voice?
So many lives would be better lived as instrumentals.

But I am also to blame: if you, too,
Speak the truth and feel it press upon your skin…
Do not hold your breath — we need you.
All of us who wish for something better —
The few of us, we diamond beads strung sparsely
Along the string of time — we do not often meet
Except in spirit, quite asynchronously —
But we love you and your intellect,
Your strength, your power and your passion.
And so I ask again: Nietzsche or Napoleon?
Neither, because not or:
Try and — try both — try more.