[Jeffrey]

two thousand year stare

Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.
.............- Virgil

Jerry never came home from Peleliu.
Victory is a moot point. No kids,
no wife, no one still waiting back home.

Anu-ziti fell beneath Troy's high walls,
no poet there to remember his name,
no incense burned in wide Hattusa's shrines.

Ascanius fell to Germanic arms
at Fabiranum. Forgotten, unmourned.
The thousand-year reign marched on without him.

Qing Lian was run through at Hangu Pass
where Lao Tzu penned his Tao Te Ching. No words
were penned in his honor, bleeding alone.

Baraz was on the civilian jet
sent to sparks by American missiles.
No apology, George Bush promised us.

There will yet be wars and rumors of war,
Christ cautioned us. But there was no talk
of setting this to song, flags flying high.

[Nate]

That last stanza sure is blunt... like a punch in the gut.

Poems like this show me how little I know of history.

[Jeffrey]

Originally I was just going to write about a Pacific battle during WWII, but I thought referencing a number of historical battles would aid those who don't know history (and some of these battles aren't ones I'd expect people to know, especially the minor Roman battle).

All the names have significance, but again, nothing too pressing to an initial read.

The first battle was a brutal island siege against the Japanese.

The second is one of the historical battle at Troy.

The third is a minor Roman battle against Germanic tribes.

The fourth is a pass that the Qin Dynasty defended.

The fifth is an Iranian passenger jet that was shot down by the US during the Iran-Iraq War (where we supported Saddam's Iraq), an episode that sadly few Americans know about.