A Mercenary's Tale

The theme for Poetry Picnic Week 12 at the Gooseberry Garden is Feathers, Fidelity, Figment and Fables. Umm, not sure if the following poem qualifies, but i think fable is quite close...

I wrote this poem about a soldier telling his love about his adventures. It is an imaginary tale, a fantasy story, but it could have happened in any civilization, any war.




scan by dsnake1




a mercenary's tale



you sat by the steppe's fire
absently stirring the flaming embers
as sparks crackled
in the cold wintry night
you sat listening , intently
to my tales of slaughter
i and my horse-sword
how i rode with the devil's forces
i knew you did not blame me
why i sold my sword for money

the Central Plains i rode
are bleak and barren
vultures & wild hounds picked on
diseased bones
a hundred years of war
the reasons long murky
as the ashes that swirled
between the fiefdoms
kings and dukes and serfs
fell like scythed hay
ragged troops plundered
flaming arrows torched
ravaged villages
the dead left as they fell
amid ruined harvests..

you sat listening intently
the light of the fire bouncing off
your liquid eyes
the glow on your face
more beautiful than dawn's light.



June 1991
revised 08.03.2008
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Thank you, Ava, for the Perfect Poet Award for Week 55. This is also the acceptance post for the award. Thanks again!

© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2011