History Repeats

Sword alight, shield asunder,
The knight lifts a hand,
The moors' sunny dispense,
Awash his face's brand.

Horse thrown a rider,
Mud dirtied a fall,
Basks in recompense,
Of a banner turned nival.

Tears torn from rosy cheeks,
Life blood from the neck,
Death a bittered incense,
Forward a gloomy wreck.

Cheers memory stilled in wood,
Trumpets turned a molten,
Battle's maiden yet alive,
Generations ripped open.

Blue Rose and Black Swan,
Red Bear and Silver Fire,
White Cold and Chiseled Stone,
And the Lonely Crier.

Aptly taken from on high,
War will live forever,
Men and women and children die,
No matter the endeavor.

Peace, Hope, and Life,
The End is why is fought,
Yet nothing to remember,
None know what is brought.

Millennia pass over head,
Memories under foot,
War rages again,
Now with ash and soot.

Damnation be not needed,
If only they would see,
None would falter or die,
If they remembered me.

Yet battles rage and wane,
Songs seen and sung,
The proud rattle on and on,
Spilling forth their vile dung.

Victors yell their wins,
Swim in happy mirth,
The ages sew the truth,
Beneath the ruined earth.

War shall return anew,
Years from now and then,
Men will learn humility,
But how, where, and when?