Axis & Allies - damowords

Frontier
Round Ceasarʹs son, august Octavian,
Imperium ablaze with burnishʹd gold,
But for the story of the lost legion,
Slaughterʹd within the Teutoburger Wald;
Sublunary,
Crunching cross spangling snow,
Vetʹrans of that army lit by a ghostly glow.
As the sun revived their terror,
Gleaming coronet of dawn,
They could hear the battleʹs clangour
Skeletons about them grown,
Mute & eyeless skulls together
Down shallow death‐pits thrown ‐
Thro press of shield & shrieking arrow maze
Few men of blood seldom view half their days.
Althoʹ the proud Italian
Lives unsubduable,
The Aryan barbarian
Has made his Mars mortal,
Wrought ruin on legionairres rarely rivallʹd in battle.
Germania
16
Death of Gesu
Bound by the Jewʹs Messianic cravings
The Nazarene Essene gathers his voice
Dismissʹd by Rome, ʺStrange religious ravings!ʺ
His teachings give the common man a choice;
ʺHeaven on Earth!ʺ
The fearful Sannhedrim
Deny his sacred birth, steer Pilateʹs doelful whim.
This ʹimposterʹ promptly taken
To the hill of Calvary,
Where the sins of man awaken,
Crucified upon the tree,
ʺFather, why am I foresakenʺ
Jesus weeps eerily ‐
As soldierʹs spear is ribward driven hilt
First flickers of the Holy Roman guilt.
His followers proclaim him king,
Trumpet their history ‐
Sin‐forgiving & storm‐stilling
Miracle ministry,
The perishing ephemeron of Christianity.
33
Jerusalem