An Ode to a great leader

My commander lies on a bed of roses,

His pulse denied, his body turned to ashes,

An eulogy I have prepared, but engulfed by sadness,

My soul cries and my mouth dries, as he turns to ashes.

My leader was alive only yesterday it seems,

Where was I when he left his being,

Time and tide wait for none, man or divine,

He burnt to ashes in the tunic fine.

The wars we fought and the glory we sought,

Together we rode on those grassy roads,

My lips quiver and my eyes red with fever,

For he is gone and sets the sun.

My leader valorous and knightly he was,

Defended the poor and the mighty cause,

For rights he fought, his pride he forgot,

Never vain, never disdained, my leader stopped the rot.

Inhibitions not many and reluctance never,

To act, and laugh and cry together,

For his people he lived and by their hands he died,

What was his sin? That he never lied.

Old he was not, only forty or so,

Riding like the wind against the foe,

For glory and justice, we took the barbarians' peace,

For peace and calm, my leader ceases to live.

Was it all in vain what he achieved?

For me and you and the dreams we perceived,

Of a civilisation grand and decaying now,

The houses derelict and the men starving, survive we shall but how?

The smoke reached the heavens, severed from the ashes,

The wine was drunk from the tearful glasses,

One last goodbye as we all looked to the sky,

The fire dies down and time does fly.

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