Wretch Noblesse

[Erthona]

Wretch Noblesse
‘A stony adversary, and inhuman wretch’ 1


My little boy sits in the corner,
he is angry and out of sorts.
He wanted to go with his father
to kill the evil Americans.
I cannot help but be proud
of his fierceness,
I can’t help but understand
that he is yet a boy,
and does not understand what war is.

I am sure that he was confused
and ashamed today.
He could not understand why
his father did not want to go
and fight the hated Americans,
when the guard came and took him away.
Away from me.

I can forgive my son his fierceness,
he does not yet know of war…but I do.
I have seen this once proud city,
the star of an age,
battered into ruins.
I have seen the people
buried under the rubble.
I have looked into the dead face
of a woman holding her dead baby,
half buried under the fallen buildings,
and known it to be my face.

Soon enough it will be me, dead,
holding my dead baby.
Then my son will be crying my name,
and tearing at the stone,
as I have seen other sons do.
And his father, as theirs,
will be away, fighting, or dead.
There will be no one to comfort him,
no one to explain.
And he will vow, that one day,
he will kill,
all those who have hurt him.
And I cannot help but be sad,
and proud.

"Unto the seventh generation."2

–Erthona
____________________________________________________________
1 Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice,” Act 4 scene 1
2 Matthew 22:26

©2005-2014