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(This post was last modified: 1 hour ago by RiverNotch.)
The Indian Campaign
Their pledge to follow him to the end of the world
was strained when the guides they hired all proved untrue,
leading the army to face unquenchable thirst
followed by ravenous beasts beyond description.
To Greece and to Egypt they had delivered peace,
to Persia much destruction, yet further east
the distant countries had no need for them
nor they no great designs for such unknowns.
There peace was already the land's, death and destruction
only by these explorers to be received,
including their most esteemed: from two old trees,
one through whom breezes would imitate local speech
by rustling leaves, the other limpid Greek,
the Conqueror learned that he would never see
his home and his beloved kin again,
while his appointment as King of the World would last
only for one more year. It was not poison
that in Babel made of Macedon's marshal
a dazzling mayfly, it was black despair.
Their pledge to follow him to the end of the world
was strained when the guides they hired all proved untrue,
leading the army to face unquenchable thirst
followed by ravenous beasts beyond description.
To Greece and to Egypt they had delivered peace,
to Persia much destruction, yet further east
the distant countries had no need for them
nor they no great designs for such unknowns.
There peace was already the land's, death and destruction
only by these explorers to be received,
including their most esteemed: from two old trees,
one through whom breezes would imitate local speech
by rustling leaves, the other limpid Greek,
the Conqueror learned that he would never see
his home and his beloved kin again,
while his appointment as King of the World would last
only for one more year. It was not poison
that in Babel made of Macedon's marshal
a dazzling mayfly, it was black despair.