This is the first poem I have written in this meter, and it is primarily based on the poem “sympathy” by Phillip Dunbar. We were instructed to read it during English class, and then “unpack” it, or essentially annotate the poem with little lines and dots showing rhyme, meter, metaphor imagery, etc. I believe I was the first to finish, and my paper was readily filled up with little dots, lines, and dashes of my own. In a word, I was bored. I thought to myself; hey! what a nice little opportunity to take a boring school period and turn it into a smart usage of time by writing a poem!
this was what was borne from my muse of creativity!
What the Eye of War Sees
The spikes of the battle beat, my son
and they beat with the vigor of ten drums
and their black swords come quickly, on the run
when the tides of the war are here and done
and the waiting bees with awaiting hums
there the grasses fire-inflamed, and the trees
these things the eye of war sees!
The whips of the horseman lash, my boy
and they fall with a simple, fleeting, flash
where a cut with the dagger they employ
you scream with anguish, yet they scream with joy
and they run off, laughing, in a dash
you scream with each red bead of pain that comes
he cut your hands and your thumbs
The rays of the sunlight fall, my child
and of your tears, aye, there may be many
when you struggled from my grasp, you were wild
and all of the rules that I made, you defiled
I kissed your face, it cost not a penny
now your feet trod on, to war and burnt trees
that’s what the eye of war sees.
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