Portrait in mosaic of Alexander the GreatOh, Oracle of Delphi, what secret has the gods and godesses
Revealed to Alexander that made him conqueror and immortal?
Empires rose and fell before him, from West to East and beyond;
Beauty he sought, beauty herself he destroyed at her portal?
In Egypt, the pharoah kissed his feet - isn't a pharoah a living god?
In Babylon , the seat of power of the world crowned him twice,
Where the Hanging Gardens once stood, where palaces then stood,
Glistening in the sun - the sun in a kings's hand to set and rise.
What genius has Gordius? His legendary knot untied in a flash,
A blink, a slash with Damascus sword, laying down trivial matter
On the road to conquest - so with dissenting friends and old allies,
But not Bucephalus, his faithful horse, a town he named it after.
Who is great, the invader or the vanquished? History never asks;
He who holds the Flag and the Pen, more so the Cross and the Sword,
It's the master not the slave, the pioneer not the native, the victor,
The spoils that cloak him gold, who forges the right word.
"Have we done you wrong?" the Indian prince asked the invader.
Only clash of steel and moan of the dying answered - then the crow.
Tribe after tribe, they all fell - reason to unify them into state.
What is a state, when the law of amalgamation is death row by row?
Aristotle, Alexander's teacher must have been wrong - or wronged,
When he advised the youth, "It's easier to make war than to make peace."
But advice is later laid to rest when gold and power rouse mortals
To dream beyond dreams - what could be that life the gods please?
The world is confused, the world cries foul, it weeps but forgets,
Time is the healer and the equalizer, the unifier of good and evil;
Darius and Alexander - both are great, but neither keeps the right,
For the world in gaining knowledge, after all, is the winner still.
Folly we all are, and if rationality were measured by equation, then
It is not far from biology and the gene of the lesser kind, and the same
Fallen angels, exiles of Paradise for knowing the truth of man's being;
Yet no one of us would admit it is better to be ignorant and tame.
There is always an Alexander in our midst, a Darius who ruled longer
A richer and wider world before, and Xerxes after them, and men
At their command, or in Maslow's heirarchy find ourselves who we are;
Heroes we all are, striving in a real world whose end is beyond Amen. ~
The Edge of the Forest, AVR 2011
Some people raise tangible assets and deem them achievements. Actually, not some people but rather most. This is the cruel reality, and the hurtful truth. Those who have more are still gaining; those who have none are still lose. It has always been a survival game for many a man in this world. No concern or empathy for those who we leave behind. That is what Devcomm teaches us. We should help inculcate knowledge and wisdom to those who don't have any so that in achieving are goals, we are one, and as one nation moves, one nation succeeds.
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