[Pharaohs Army]

Ugh. I can see why no one's touching this. Really tough vote here. Read them both a couple times yesterday but I'll do due diligence and read again now....

OK then

Two talented writers, clearly

Universe
I wanna say Universe tried to win on shock value alone. I will neither reward nor punish his gruesome content. Just take it for what it is. Quite a "buildup" before it "got weird" (like 26 lines or "normal stuff" before he kisses his sister). But I guess this can be afforded when you're going 50 or more.

I guess I'm a little skeptical about how realistic it is to get away with murdering multiple people (one beheaded). But if he returns to the waterfall every year to re-live it, that must mean he's not in jail. So again, everything about this verse is over the top. But it is technically sound throughout.

dead man
As is dead man's.
dead man is a victim of his own consistency here, in that i've read so many of his verses before and they're all good, but some common tropes seem to crop up all the time and "dull me" to the power of the verse.
In the beginning part I truly had a flashback to my childhood with all of his references
circling bases. tennis balls, aluminum bats
EVERY DAY YO
smoked our stolen Parliaments
YEP
Verse seemed to change course after this line:
spirits in our flask to keep them spirits away
There is a definitive change in style and content
Forgive my reading comprehension but after this not only does the style change, but I believe it becomes an extended metaphor (drowning in the deep water of life?)
I personally think more of the first half/ past tense memories might have won it for me. But the change threw me off

I'm nitpicking of course, that's because it's so friggen close. Two totally different verses.
I seriously considered calling this a draw and saying "just take this feed, someone else vote"
But I'm self-conscious and believe that would be viewed as a cop-out SO

I'll V Universe who probably had an advantage by going longer. But it was a narrative that kept me reading. But I'm still torn and hope dead man (with the more artistic verse) gets some votes too to make this a close one.