From: alaric@STI.COM (Phil Stracchino)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: POEM:  Glory - alt.callahans #6713
Date: 9 Apr 92 04:21:33 GMT

Kateri writes:
] Comments and critique welcome as always. - Kateri
] 
] *****
] 			Glory
] 
] [.....deleted for (relative) brevity.....]
]
] 	At times a necessity, yes.  But the generals must remember
] 		there's a price the soldiers pay.
] 
] 			 Blood and dirt.
] 			     Glory.
] 


"I hope this works," Alaric is heard to mutter, his voice faint
and echoing as though coming from a great distance.
"I'm posting this through ucbvax, because I haven't been able to
 post anything directly for a week and a half.  There's no free
 space on /usr/spool/news/usr/lib, because we only have 150Mb
 for news.  I'm trying to get one of our extra 760Mb drives onto
 the nntp server (they're reconditioned drives, and I'll be damned
 if they're going back onto the fileserver if I have any choice in
 the matter), but in the meantime it's ucbvax or nothing."

He sighs.

"Anyway, I read your poem, Kateri, and I thought it was great...
 but the only way I could come up with to adequately answer was
 with one of my own.  I've ben trying for several days to post it
 from here, but no dice - so maybe I can get ucbvax to post it for
 me.
"Anyway...."


                     The Spirit of the Warrior


Back in the dawn of history, I drew my first faint breath
And fending off the wolf-pack's fangs, I saved a child from death
Then life flowed fast into my veins, and I grew tall and strong
And even then I knew the path before me would be long

I stood with the three hundred in the pass at Marathon
And I ran beside the messenger on his triumphant run
Though I'm numbered not among the men who fought and fell that day
Still they'd not have won without me, for I had my part to play

The face that launched a thousand ships did send me forth as well,
And I stood beside Achilles when that mighty fleet set sail
I marched proud among the victors as the topless towers burned
And stood silent with the losers, as the price they paid was learned

In long-lost days of chivalry, I rode beside the King
When we charged the heathen Saracen, and how our swords did ring
With the fury of the battle, as we took Jerusalem -
But for the brave knights who fell that day, there'd be no requiem

For England's King Harry, at Agincourt I drew my bow
And the French knights long did tarry, though it seemed they wished to go
For our sheeting flights of arrows filled the heavens with their sound
As we did our bloody slaughter, and we pinned them to the ground

When King Philip of the Spaniards filled the Channel with his fleet
From Portsmouth we sailed forth, and in long battle we did meet
All up the coast we harried them, and most we sank or burned
And of their great Armada, not a dozen ships returned

I rode with the six hundred on their gallant, hopeless charge
And when the Russian cannons thundered, I was torn by their barrage
I died often on that day, and they carved all my names in stone
But when I rode out of the valley, I did not ride out alone

I slogged through trenches with ten thousand others at Verdun
While they shelled us dead by hundreds, and they shot us dead by ones
And some died from the gassing, bubbling out their dying curse
Though the living it was terrible, the dying still was worse

In the days of Hitler's rise we fought for freedom in the sand
And he sent his Condor Legion to pour bombs down on our land
And though we could do little to hold back the tanks' advance
Still we fought on, even though we knew we had no chance

In Spitfires and in Hurricanes, we battled in the blue
And never were so many protected by so few
And gladly did we give our lives, so high up in the sky
For if the bombers made it through, so many more would die

Then in the heartless Russian winter, we defended Stalingrad
And we fought for every foot of ground, for it was all we had
So we fought and died, and finally we drove the Panzers off
But we still knew we'd not won when we counted the awful cost

The cruiser Hood did meet the Bismarck, terror of the seas
But bravely though she fought, the raider brought her to her knees
For a shell struck in her vitals, and it made a fatal wound
And with a thousand men on board, the mighty Hood went down.

And when we fought at El Alamein, in the desert sand
Where Rommel and his Afrika Korps made their final stand
Our shellfire filled the skies and our gun flashes lit the night,
And we turned the course of history, and called the slaughter right.

In a far land north of China, anger found a new release
And from all our different nations we marched off to keep the peace
It wasn't war, just "police action" - or that was what they said
But though it had a new name, bullets killed us just as dead

In Angola and the Congo, and a hundred different wars,
We took their dirty money and we didn't ask their cause,
And we shot and killed each other in a hundred different lands -
Though they never pulled the triggers, still the blood was on their hands

Then I dressed in jungle green and with a rifle in my hand
I marched off to fight for freedom in a land called Vietnam
And I did not shirk the duty, when it came my time to go -
But it was "friendly fire" that slew me, near as often as the foe

But I didn't mind the dying, so long as the day was won
For I'm the spirit of all warriors, still alive or dead and gone
But now you've paid off all the warriors, and you rain death from the skies
And you've killed me with your numbers, you've slain me with your lies

For I've battled down through history, and never shirked the fight
And always told myself I fought against the fall of night
Though sometimes the cause was unjust, always my heart was true
With my own hands I wrestled Death, to keep his hands from you.

But now you've harnessed Death in metal, and you fill the land
With seeds of fusion hellfire, and the button's by your hand
There's no more room for error, you've wound in all the slack
And once the missiles are in flight, there's no calling them back

Childishly holding a nuclear pistol to your head
You put your finger on the trigger, shouting "Better dead than Red,"
And you'll gladly make the choice, as though it was your choice alone,
For all the others who would rather make theirs on their own

You build your endless arsenals, piling weapons on the shelf
And you explain it all with rhetoric you don't believe yourself
You speak of the Red menace, or the Sandinista threat -
But I haven't seen the Sandinistas invade Texas yet.

Down the long ages of history, I fought the cause of life
And when the third horseman rode out I took the first brunt of the strife
But you stand up and you speak of fighting a "winnable war,"
And your generals wait to squander all the lives that I fought for

When will you learn?  I knew long ago wars are always lost -
The question's not who wins, it's which side pays the lesser cost.
Someday you'll put your wars aside, someday you'll pass the test
And on that day, when it should come, I'll take a hard-earned rest

In the meantime, I'll be ready when comes the call to war
And I'll be there whenever the cause is one worth fighting for
But when we've fought the final battle, and taken the final keep
Then the spirit of the warrior at last can dare to sleep.




"I guess some of it is a little dated now," he says, a little sheepishly.
"Funny how quickly the face of the world can change, sometimes.  Not
 that I'm complaining, you understand..."

He shrugs, and sighs again in frustration .

"We no longer have any reason to fear the Soviet government.  Now all we
 have to fear is our own....."


-- 
 The Renaissance Man  |  "Pack your bags full of guns and ammunition
   Alaric of Dare     |   Bill's come due for the Industrial Revolution
   alaric@sti.com     |   Scorch the Earth 'till the Earth surrenders...."
   phils@sti.com      |			--	Midnight Oil