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Jerusalem, the Jugular -1

You can't imagine what it's like to march on a sacred city, to plunder and pulverize a Peoples' physical promise to a Deity, demolishing centuries of lavish labor, wasting offspring of ancient heredity, destroying flesh, scripture and stone with a savage Roman military synergy, a discipline determined in it's destruction of dissension 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 the Jewish guerilla ambush asymmetrical 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 sacrificers there 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 a rush, 240 men perished like spazing stars trapped in a box, our grief agape with 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 ill 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, J.A.B.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2017




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Date: 3/3/2018 1:49:00 AM
"the buildings would blaze like windowed volcanos,screams salting us with panic linger" Love that vibrant scene you describe so beautifully and terrifyingly, Justin! "War's royalty" - A brazen, dramatic identity. Nice expansion here...Always, Laura
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Justin Bordner
Date: 3/12/2018 4:22:00 PM
There exists an artistry in this poem that transcends the verbal, intellectual element of poetry, living in the landscapes of the mind's inner, unlimited studio Laura. What a painting that description you quote would be, yet no static canvas can compete with the living imagery of our indefatigable, unbridled minds. this is the great visual gift of our craft, we give birth to the boundless imagery of existence, even defying the "laws of the physical world"..." 240 men perished like spazing stars trapped in a box..."J.A.B.

Book: Reflection on the Important Things