-
- The fiery chariot of the east had crossed through many skies
- The frost of winter had given way to many a blooming spring
- For seasons like the restless waves had followed each in
line
- Through myriad ages of the past, aye, since the dawn of time
- Till time stood still one summer's eve, still as the sultry
air
- And the briny sea swells shivered beneath the pallid glow
- Of moon and stars. The sister fates now rested
- From their weird and merciless task. For all things were
in readiness.
-
- Above the walls of Troy, night flickered with the tongues
- Of flames that had been raised in thanks to all the gods
- For relief that had been sought for ten long starving years
- Had entered white and beautiful, through the unresisting
gates of Troy.
- The great horse had been wheeled through clouds of dust
- In the heat of the noonday sun, to the heart of the Ilyrian
city
- A tribute of peace and of friendship, of sympathy from the
Greeks.
- And now the Trojans were feasting. Vibrant strains
- Of revelry and dance floated over the Trojan walls
- To the Greek soldiers, far from their native soil
- Where many had ripened from young men into fierce hardened
- warriors,
- And where many had left their bones, far from the hearts
of loved ones.
-
- Years of battle and hunger, of frost and scorching heat
- Had dried and withered their hearts, till those organs
- ceased to beat to the pulsing power of love.
- Not one gentle thought remained to those who had survived
- Their speech was as hard and as callous
- As their sinewy, knotted arms. And all who
- Had first gone to battle with no real hate in their hearts
- For their foes in the city of Troy, now hated with the fierceness
- Of hell. The many griefs that descended upon them
- Like the plague to a crowded slum, they laid to the charge
of their enemies.
- The Trojans, who suffered more cruelly, than ever the Greeks
had done.
- Refuse there was in that city
- In every alleyway and street. Disease gave birth to death
- And death gave birth to disease.
- An infernal nursery of waste. So cruel was the suffering
- That demon spirits attacked the minds
- Of mothers of children, till crazed they fed on the flesh
- Of the young who had died.
-
- Yet tonight the Trojans were celebrating
- Emaciated men, so weak, that a touch to their lips
- Of the wineskins could make them reel with a stupor of giddiness
- And the women caroused with their men.
- Onto this scene there descended,
- When the moon had left the sky
- The grim warrior sons of Greece
- From the bowels of the horse of peace.
- The most stalwart had been selected
- The hearts most steeled with hate.
- One thought was common between them
- To make of this short bloody night
- An end to all of their suff'ring.
-
- The horse of crude planks had been fashioned
- Of cedar ribs,
- Had been reared thirty feet from the earth
- Had been worked upon and planed
- And smoothed to a silky perfection
- By artisans more valued by the Grecian leaders
- Than warriors themselves.
-
- It shone majestic and silver
- On that fateful night of old.
- And two young lovers embraced
- Close by the great wooden cartwheels
- Upon which the great white horse rested.
- Slowly, with silence and stealth
- An opening appeared in the neck
- An aperture of dark foreboding,
- High above the two young lovers.
-
- Youth had been tested as never,
- It had since the dawn of time
- Been tested to hope
- In the face of death and was
- Testing the power of youth
- To love and have faith
- In the clutches of reality.
-
- And all that was beautiful
- In the desperate city of Troy
- All the divine gifts to humans
- Were embraced in the arms of those lovers.
-
- A figure appeared in the opening
- A face glared down on the city
- And eyes that were no longer human
- That glowed like the eyes of the tiger
- Spied the young lovers.
-
- Suddenly the maiden
- Tensed with a thrill of horror
- For she saw the hate far above her
- And just as a scream left her lips
- A shaft left a Grecian bow
- And plunged to the heart of the maiden.
- One hand she had still in her lover's
- And it tightened with the onslaught of death.
- For the moment the soul of the maiden
- Grasped with that delicate hand
- At the soul of her lover.
-
- Then was lost with the limpness of death.
- Still another shaft followed on the path of the first
- And it cleft the broad shoulders in twain
- Of the young maiden's winsome young lover.
- A cry of pain the youth uttered
- And next he called her by name
- Whom he had loved above all earthly creatures
- And in spite of the woes of the city.
- The two warm bodies collapsed,
- And fell to the earth close together.
- The name of the maiden will echo
- Down through the ages forever
- Calling all loved ones departed.
-
- Now a rope tumbled down from the opening
- And the warriors descended in silence.
- The gates of Troy then were flung wide
- And the enemies swarmed in like shadows
- To begin their work of destruction
- When actually it was all at an end.
- They left in their wake bloody corpses
- But they found no more hearts to destroy.
- All else had been withered beforehand
- In the parched, sieged city of Troy.
- And only two hearts had escaped
- By some miracle none can explain
- The blight of despair.
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