Saturday, January 10, 2009

The Price of Prosperity

Victory.
The sun flashing through the leaves
Glinting off steel.
Procession back to the court
Parading triumph for all to see.
The monarch is pleased
When his general presents his rival's head.
Peace was won the hard way,
The iron way.

Peace.
A thousand days passed.
The country prospered.
The people grew fat as thoughts
Of war faded from memory.
Nothing could touch them,
Secure in their domain.
They failed to notice the way
Their neighbours sat watching and waiting to prey.

War.
They were attacked,
Two armies at their door.
No one warned the capital
Until it was too late.
Their forces had grown lax in their prosperity,
They were ripe for a fall
If no one answered their monarch's call.

Now all that is left to see
Is if they can stand up and fight,
Meet the trials head on like in the days of old,
Or if they will be conquered and forgotten,
A footnote in the histories of men.

3 comments:

Gustavo B. Rockwell said...

I see how it fits this quote, but it really reminds me of stories from the Gandhi days. I liked it.

Dust said...

Needs at least one explosion, but other then that one massive negative I liked it a lot.

World War Faive said...

Lol, I remember the Gandhi days... This brings me back as well.

It begs the question in a way, like: why do we have peace? why, becuase we are good at war!; Why do we go to war? Because we are securing our peace.
(Thank you critication betarows)

Your story encompasses that element of reality quite well, which makes it spot on. Seems we must break the fallacy of war and peace so that perhaps we can find true co-existance.

That being said, maybe a tiny explosion would have enchanced it. Just a teeny one :)