First Spear

poem

This poem was inspired by an image from ironage.media on 6/28/2023

Long ago, when the legions marched, and a man just wanted a plot of land to farm.  So, he joined the legion to serve in the army and spent his days in toil and hardship.  He served in Gaul and Germania, fighting many armies threatening the empire and earning his rank.  He had to put up with the arrogance of the Tribunes as they plotted for more power and sent his legion into more fighting.  Yet he stood for twenty-five years building walls and forts, building aqueducts, and setting up camp almost every night on the march.  He got used to little food in the morning, good food at night, constant patrolling, and fortified camps.  By the grace of the camp surgeons the miracle workers of their age, they healed more legionaries than you can believe with techniques that wouldn’t be matched until the American civil war.  But finally, he may rest and enjoy his land in Macedonia, hard fought and won over for all the struggles he endured.  A prize won for the joys of bringing civilization to an uncivilized world.