The Adventures of Morfix

War was a constant Menace. It has become part of Us. We have lost loved ones. We have lost livestock. Hunger has ravished our land. We have been constantly attacked by the warriors of Mobgad. Our wives, they had c**************e of. We remember the dark months we held the sector The nights we watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets we remember the rats; and the stench Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain Do we ever stop and ask, 'Is it all going to happen again?' We are powerless against the warriors of Mobgad Do you remember that hour of silence before the attack? And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men? Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back? With dying eyes and lolling heads--those ashen-grey Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay? The wind, blowing like a hurricane In the frightening desolated lands of Mobgad Where the wolves are ferocious And hawks and vultures feast on bloody hands Wounded souls soaked in smudges of blood Persistent nightmares of woebegone escape Screeching fervently A bright radiant flash scorches the cloudless horizon And ashes drift upward, caressing my bare, dangling feet Bleak, barren, biting malice below seems blazon But the dead know not the sentiment of defeat. I am William the swordsmith of the land of Laos the father of Morfix. The Knight of the clan of Laos. I have seen many wars. I have won many wars I have lost many wars. many war lost against one enemy. one enemy; the warriors of Mobgad. who then shall lead the swordsmen to victory against the common enemy?