THE SCARS THEY KEPT
They followed him into Asia.
There he cut the Gordian Knot
And said he'd kill the King of Persia,
And so for that they fought.
**********
They fought their way down the coast.
It took them a year to conquer Tyre,
But at last they could boast
They had won the land entire.
**********
Next they took Egypt for him,
And they paused there for a time.
Then, on a whim,
He proclaimed himself divine.
**********
But all of Persia still remained,
So they marched on to the Tygris.
There they hard campaigned
And there they beat King Darius.
**********
They took his royal city,
They slaughtered all they found,
They looted without pity,
They burned it to the ground.
**********
The King fled to the wilderness,
But they chased him without rest.
They were all relentless
In their royal quest.
**********
They slew him in the heart of Asia,
Thinking that would end the war.
They had conquered all of Persia,
But Alexander wanted more.
**********
So they conquered yet another land,
In yet another war.
Today it's Afghanistan.
But Alexander wanted more.
**********
So they marched on to the Indus
In yet another war.
But, to satisfy his lust,
Alexander wanted more.
**********
Alexander wanted India and yet another war.
He wanted all of China, all that he could see,
He wanted so much more,
Even, perhaps, the sea.
**********
But they wanted no more war,
They wanted to go home.
They wanted nothing more,
He could fight the rest alone.
**********
And as they turned and left for home,
With all the scars they kept,
Alexander stood alone,
And Alexander wept.
No comments:
Post a Comment