A Simple Soldier's Poem

• Posted by Paws March 6, 2016 - 1,616 views

  Corpses piled high on the battlefield,

  All around me soldiers died,

  With the legion I advanced with sword and shield,

  The dead were scattered far and wide.

  No quarter given, no chance to yield,

  Legionnaires were killed to either side,

  But this warrior's life and fate were sealed.

  A Decurion beside me fell and cried,

  His breastplate bent and torn and peeled,

  A marksman's arrow had stopped his stride.

  My arm was tired, blade too heavy to wield,

  But on I marched for Legion's pride.

  Above us crows and ravens wheeled,

  As we entered the breach to stem the tide,

  Yet ever onward, our bodies steeled,

  Towards the standard that was our guide.

  Then from an unseen blow I reeled,

  As our opposing forces clashed and vied.

  To bloody ground I fell and kneeled,

  The pain too great, too much to abide.

  My armour rent and flesh revealed,

  I awaited the stroke or a blade inside.

  But my ordained death had been repealed,

  The grim spectre of death I had defied,

  Yet at the prospect of renewed life I sighed,

  For in Aetherius I yearned to reside.