3, 2, 1, ON AIR.
History for $100, Alex.
“A mutual defense pact led by
The city-state of Athens,
Whose expanding sphere of influence
Provoked the Peloponnesian War,
Leading to the downfall of prideful Athens.”
What is the Delian League?
That is correct.
History for $200, Alex.
“A mutual defense pact led by
Imperial Germany,
Whose expanding martial belligerence,
Resulted in The Great War,
Leading to the downfall of prideful Germany.”
What is the Triple Alliance?
That is correct.
History for $500, Alex.
“A mutual defense pact led by
The United States of America,
Whose expanding role in eastern Europe
Threatens a third world war,
And the possible downfall of everything prideful.”
What is NATO?
[Dead air.]
EMERGENCY BROADCASTING SYSTEM ALERT…
Categories:
peloponnesian, allegory, angst, anxiety, conflict,
Form: Burlesque
And so life comes to pass
Plato, the Republic, and the riposte of revenge
Knowing history can never fully extend
The Socratic palm of philosophy’s heavy hand
Poisoned by power's thirst for peaceful Persian seas
Which stir lush groves of crimson and Thebian thieves
As sparkling city-states crumble and empires feast
Rome culling the culture crush of golden Greece
Where Herodotus fathered and Plutarch bleeds
Tales of battles, generals, and Hellenic greed
That perhaps Alexander was but a minion of means
Simply a soldier of death's deciduous seed
Born to pass hereditary titles to war's widowed lands
Endlessly reaping the accolades of conquering man
Somehow sown in the tomes of Aristotelian prose
Even construed as a catharsis of glory’s godless throes
So perhaps, someday, conquest will become nothing more
Than tragedy misquoting the late...great...Edgar Allan Poe
Categories:
peloponnesian, allegory, confusion, introspection, life,
Form: Free verse