Protagonists, antagonists,

and all in-between,

relying on serendipity

to give its cosmic wink,

decide their fates,

and make them conduits

for that universal allegory

looming ever so large,

within this paradigm

of ashes and dust,

before they're footnoted

as the mere footfall

of an era bygone,

the one following

forgetting to ask

who was hero,

and who was not...