Feb 2013
I sometimes close my eyes
And perceive an ancient field
Where honor never dies
Behind an ancient wall of shields
I walk among the Peers
I've bled with since a lad
Beneath a copse of spears
I stride out brazen clad
The sun is hot upon my back
My helmet fills with salt
But then the foe starts his attack
So it's forward we vault
We have no drums for rhythm
No pipes to keep the time
Our forces fill the schism
Our Andreia fills the rhyme
Our Lambdas chip and crack
As the arrows fill our shields
I feel my Aspis thwack
As I bring my fear to heel
We finally reach their line
And our dories come to bear
They call on the divine
To deliver them from there
And I hear my captain say
As I walk amidst the squallor
"If all the world were just
There would be no need for valor"
And perceive an ancient field
Where honor never dies
Behind an ancient wall of shields
I walk among the Peers
I've bled with since a lad
Beneath a copse of spears
I stride out brazen clad
The sun is hot upon my back
My helmet fills with salt
But then the foe starts his attack
So it's forward we vault
We have no drums for rhythm
No pipes to keep the time
Our forces fill the schism
Our Andreia fills the rhyme
Our Lambdas chip and crack
As the arrows fill our shields
I feel my Aspis thwack
As I bring my fear to heel
We finally reach their line
And our dories come to bear
They call on the divine
To deliver them from there
And I hear my captain say
As I walk amidst the squallor
"If all the world were just
There would be no need for valor"
So the back-story on this is I've always been a bit of a laconiphile, in fact I tend to list Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield as one of my all time favorite novels. I'm not, however, the worlds biggest spartan afficinado, that honor goes to a fellow i'm currently working with. So great, in fact, is his love of Laconia, that one night on post he fashioned himself a spear out of a random broom handle, 550 cord, and God knows what else. One night, he came up to the post I'm working at and asked me to sing him a song.
"You don't want me to do that," I tell him hoping to spare his ear drums.
"Sing me a song," he insists.
So in the end I compromise and end up reciting a few of my poems. By the time I finish the first he had a look of enchantment upon his face. At this point he asked me to write him a spartan poem. So I wrote the following piece, basing the theme off of the immortal words of Aegisaleus, "If all the world were just there would be no need for valor."
"You don't want me to do that," I tell him hoping to spare his ear drums.
"Sing me a song," he insists.
So in the end I compromise and end up reciting a few of my poems. By the time I finish the first he had a look of enchantment upon his face. At this point he asked me to write him a spartan poem. So I wrote the following piece, basing the theme off of the immortal words of Aegisaleus, "If all the world were just there would be no need for valor."
