A hoplite warrior
Sits nude upon a rock
Upon Marathon’s beach
Where a day before
An empire was turned
Back to the sea
Where from they’d come
Persian warriors
Of the Emperor Darius
By a city of citizens
Shield to shield
And spears forward
The shores are clean
But the day before
Were red with blood
Of many men
Who’d fled
Of the empire
Now bled
Darius learned a lesson
Not to fleetingly consider
The warriors of Greece
Who rather than surrender
Were willing to die instead
For their world
The hoplite sits
Considers what happened
Knowing only that
His world is now saved
By blood of men
So that democracy might live
So that Greece might give
Civilization the highest gifts
And they still remain
In a world alive
With vengeful Gods
And selfish men
And other extremes
Some visions exist
To overcome
And we are blessed
To be the children
Of such dreams
