Glory

I’ve fallen here before, if I remember right.

A beast with a mane here did I fight.

And there, that’s where I lost my shield.

And then I ran across that field.

I huffed and puffed, I screamed and cried.

I tried my best and then I died.

For it all I had to live

For pride and applause my life did I give

A bride and a home

A crown and a throne

My body was young, but my story is old

You now know my end, so back to the start

Wisdom from a ghost, do I impart

They say I was gifted, they say I was blessed

With a chiselled jaw and a barrelled chest

A fox could not my cunning match

A cold could not my body catch

Near and far, from town to town

Stories of my deeds were passed around

And then the call, for a man so brave

A beast with a mane

A child it had slain

But who could save?

There was only one name

I heard the call and so I came

Sat before the chiefs and elders

I said for this task, you shall pay me with shelter

Land on which to graze my flock

Men to plough and tend my crop

Your most treasured daughter shall I marry

And half your gold shall I carry

What could they say? Their options few

They had to agree and this I knew

So there I stood, sword and shield

Watched by my men, upon my field

But the beast’s cunning I could not match

Its throat with my sword I could not catch

Its claw dug deep, I gasped my last

I saw a light and then I passed

So now, here i am. No longer a man

No wife do I have. I own no land

My pride is gone. My body has crumbled

I wish I had lived a life more humbled

If I had known my limitations, I would have fathered generations

I was not survived by a son or daughter. My name is not chiselled upon an altar

Not by my deeds, but by a story

Of a man, who died, for his own glory