A Stab in the Back

By luigi_pagano

Wed, 06 Sep 2017
  • 1039 reads
4 comments
 
To be shredded to pieces
by twenty-three daggers
is a shocking experience
but what hurts the most
is being stabbed in the back
by one’s own adopted son.
 
He has had many warnings;
‘do beware’, he is told
by the doctors and friends
and even Calpurnia adds a plea.
Danger lurks, as anyone can see,
on the Ides of March 44BC.
 
A bird flies inside the Forum
and is torn apart by a wild hawk.
Comets gallop across the sky;
Etna disgorges streams of hot lava
and darkness eclipses the sun.
All are ill omens of what is to come.
 
These portents occur on the eve
of the day Caesar is to be king.
But the dictator refuses to believe
that anything can ever go wrong.
He marches through a moving throng
of a vociferous and angry mob.
 
Go back, go back, he is exhorted
by sympathetic men in the crowd,
but the cries come far too late.
As ever with him, the die is cast:
it is now time to face the music,
the day of reckoning is here at last.
 
The truth only dawns on the tyrant
when the last blade pierces him.
He sees Brutus joining the mêlée,
as the attack becomes very wild,
and incredulously cries with pain
"Kai su, teknon?": "You too, child?"
 
© Luigi Pagano  2017
 
This image was originally posted to Flickr by Penn Provenance Project at http://flickr.com/photos/58558794@N07/6693294857. It was reviewed on by the FlickreviewR robot and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.
Certificate U
Poetry Monthly
Mutevoli pensieri
Historical Fiction

Comments

Submitted by airyfairy on

What an interesting take on the Poetry Monthly theme.  I looked the quotation up - I had no idea that was what it was originally thought to be!  Always good to learn something through poetry.

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

There are various theories as to what he said at the crucial moment and whether he spoke Greek or Latin but we know for sure that it wasn't English.

Thanks for your welcome comment, Jane.
Luigi x

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Great rendering, Luigi. It gains something - or regains it - being told in verse.

Parson Thru

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Sometimes the old stories are the best, Kevin.

Thanks for reading.

Best wishes, Luigi.