BARBARIAN

Here I sit
Awaiting death.

Slime drips down cold walls
Distant roars of crowd and beast,
The stench
Of human filth and fear
A brew mixed in this gory feast.

Beetles scurry
In the sand at my feet.

My eyes strain
In the feeble light,
Drifting thoughts of home
The burning, the screaming
And the desperate, hopeless fight.

I dry my hands in sand
To grip my sword better.

To my land Albina
Came a leathern horde,
Bristling plumes, ordered spear
They called us 'Barbarian'
Killed our women with their sword.

A tear falls from my bearded face
My Morwenna lies dead far away.

I slaughtered many that day
My bearskin dripping Roman blood,
But I was felled by a legion
And dragged here to fight for them
In the arena, they say I'm good.

I pray to my Gods
I remember the moonlit henge.

I will return there in death
To walk the stones as if in life,
Though I kill whoever faces me
The mob, baying pack roar acclaim
But, I kill in memory of my wife.

They call me 'Vir Gigas'
The crowd are screaming my name.

My true name is Cynbel of Belgae
Tribal chief and warlord,
Now just a slave, a pawn of death
Selected to fight the Gladiator
To battle for life, sword on sword.

I step through the gates of hell
Into the cauldron of debauchery.

I look at my killers in waiting
I smile as I sense their voiding fear,
They circle me looking for weakness
But I strike with a wolf like howl
Killing with a lunge to great cheers.

All three lie slain
For I am Vir Gigas... The giant man.

A son of Albina, I stalk the dais
Promising death to all on high,
These sons of Rome in togas
And their whores lying all around
This Barbarian wants to die.

My bloodied spear is thrown
As I scream the curses of Brittania.

My life soon to be over
As a phalanx march toward me,
I charge. keening my battle cry
A bearskin clad, dread warrior
From far across the sea.

I see the stones before me
Morwenna smiling brightly.

I am home, walking the groves
Of beech, ash, and the mighty oak,
Back in beautiful Albina
My wife, she walks beside me
In deaths comforting cloak.

Phil Hall  April 2014