Thursday, June 29, 2017

Dawn over the Colosseum


Making war for the pleasure
Of the leisured class
The plutocrats
The warriors were well trained
Never enemies
Just professionals of combat
Dying too soon to leave legacies
Paid in food, and in promises 
Never forming families
But brothers in arms
From across the Mediterranean
And the far reaches
Of the empire
These were men
Who had only one hope
To survive their employment
Unable to decline their labor
Their training and physical abilities
Their lethal arms and agility
Made them dangerous
So dangerous
But slaughter paid so very little
And soon enough those trained would rise
And use their skills
Against their owners
Fighting to be free
To one day see
The sun rise
Over the Mediterranean