Jerusalem, the Jugular - Part One

You can't imagine what its like to march on a sacred city, to plunder and pulverize a Peoples' promise to Deity, demolishing centuries of lavish labor, wasting offspring of ancient heredity, destroying flesh, scriptures and stone with a savage Roman military synergy, a discipline determined in it's destruction of dissention, inspired by ancestral victory, politics was not our purview, methodical punishment was our specialty, We were War's royalty, we were Legio XV Apollonaris, monsters of Mars, messengers of Apollo, the juggernaut of Jupiter, along with 11 other Legions led by General Titus, 60, 000 cuts of glory we stood, for 3 and a half years we fought through Jewish guerilla ambush asymetrical urban warfare welting our progress like a pirate pestilence district after district, hell spell after hell spell we bled with chilled maneuver, the Zealots were pyromaniacs, burnt sacraficers, their zeal and our bodies zesty wood, in the Kidron Valley they flooded the streets " knee high " with oiled water as the Cohorts waded through the lanes leery, a torch was tossed, flames rose in rush 240 men perished like spazing stars trapped in a box, our grief agape with a horrified crush, as reprimand, Titus made the Legate sit in a tent with his chopped off ring finger smoldering like hot sand in the hand of a marooned man aware of error in his plan, the insurgents had men we called Fox Tails, desperate demons who knew how Hell began, as a skirmish succumbed to our skill and number they would run into apartments, dragging the fury of our blades into rooms of Hades revenge, these were fire entrapments, the buildings would blaze like windowed volcanos, screams salting us with panic linger, It was not uncommon to discover a missing Brother Legionary castrated, and decapitated with a headedless eagle carved upon his chest, don't speak to me about morals and mercy for I have seen and dealt the damage of rude death hate becomes your Father, vengence your Mother, aggravated murder your cause when everything you revere and fear merge to make a leviathen of life, the " Chosen People " of God became the chosen target of annihilation, Mount Moriah, mansion of Yahweh the Pariah would become capital of Divine crucifixion, J.A.B. This poem has been entered into the Roman Legion Contest to honor Ancient Rome and the Poet who sponsored this historical subject.