The God-King and His People

By Lynn Ockersz

Rising powerful and sheer,

Out of the cracked, thirsting earth,

What remains of this fortress,

Of the God-King of legend,

Has two narratives to offer,

The awe-struck mountain climber;

One is that of a fierce lord and master,

Who tamed wild, tenacious nature,

And made it yield a rock palace,

With the visage and the body of a lion,

From where he ruled with a fist of iron,

Silencing all those with kingly ambitions,

While narrative two, which story tellers,

Have thought it wise to keep concealed,

Tells of how skeletal, voiceless people of the Isle,

Were horse-whipped into recasting the rock,

Until the rocksteady garrison rose in the sky,

But were left for dead and as prey for diving raven,

When they fell in a bloody heap,

At their slave drivers’ crushing feet,

Underscoring the heavy price in blood,

Master- builders exact from the subject class.