April 5 - An Abcedarian

Who's Watching the Nobles?
An ABCEDARIAN

A
Better
Castle wall!
Deepen the moat.
Enemies keep out.
Friends keep safely inside
Go forth. Collect the harvest.
Haul it in. Store it safe away.
In bins and barns, boxes and cellars
Just in case the siege lasts for many months
Keep your important things close in bags and packs.
Loved ones closer still. This world is a deadly place.
May you never need to fly to the shelter of walls.
No threat of harm, we pray, ever come nigh your dwelling place,
Or evil men ride down, trailing death and ruin in their wake.
Present days seem safer. Grown wiser we've had done with knights and kings,
Queens and potentates, the noble bullies that once pillaged and conquered 
Right round the world wherever they could find a harmless folk; no threat to them
Steel clad, with swords on mighty steeds; the kind we use now for pulling beer wagons.
Too safe? Perhaps we do not feel the threat because the armored men so long are gone.
Under the thin skin of civilization we turn back to our crops and crafts and fields
Vaguely aware evil men still lust for power; just not our particular evil men.
While we sleep they're building armor, gathering armies, to take away our hard-won liberties.
X-ing out the troublesome bits of law that stand between them and the winning of mighty kingdoms.
You are in the way, to be trodden upon along the way to glory; along the road to empire.
Zygotes from which to grow peasants, peons, slaves. But we shall not go quietly having tasted freedom once.

© 2014 by Tom King