Roman Wall
ROMAN WALL
Progress accelerates around us but still
Like squirrels turning a treadmill
Past and present are the same, it’s true,
As the paralyzed Prufrock himself knew
Superpowers come and go
Talking of Michelangelo*
My old school was built near a great wall and
My cousins lived in a town nearby called Wallsend.
The Roman Wall is in everyone’s blood in North England.
The Romans built this wall ** two millennia ago
Hoping it would frighten so
Running a hundred miles coast-to-coast,
Of heavily fortified frontiers in Europe, the most.
Its bristling armistice line across Britain
Designed to hold the barbarian threat in
With the unchallengeable Roman legion.
Ultimately : friendship between Roman and barbarian.
The US buit a like wall fifty years ago
Hoping it would frighten so
Running a hundred miles coast-to-coast
Of heavily fortified frontiers in the world, the most.
Its bristling stance across Korea’s armistice line
To warn the barbarian threat - a sign
From the unchallengeable US legion.
- But confrontation can’t last forever in the region.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
* References to the LOVE SONG OF J ALFRED PRUFROCK (T. S. Eliot)
** Built by Emperor Hadrian in 122 AD : the wall
is also known as HADRIAN’S WALL
Copyright © Sidney Beck | Year Posted 2011
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