I wrote a poem called Strength and Honour a few months back, which won the One Word Challenge over at Writer's Talkback.  I'm fascinated with history, so I used that as inspiration for the poem by combining history with myth to write about a hero of mine - a certain man called Spartacus.


Strength and Honour

Graphite shapes stencilled in your eyes,
Seemed to hold back an imaginary darkness,
The sting of your words eased,
But you still swiped me with a spiteful claw,
Our malice sullied the air,
As thick as our blood in the sand.
Juddering heartbeats drowned us,
Like a collective fear,
The stagnant mist of death,
Came, cloaked, and in silence,
We challenged each other,
Braced and twisted and fraught,
Clash of iron and wood and flesh,
Sinews stretched beyond their means,
Two ruddy reflections beneath the sun.
One memory at a time climbed in,
To suppress the beast within me,
A woman and child lost to time,
Whose bodies lay among the reeds
And now withered against the heat.
But the pain drives my sword,
To strip any flower of its petals,
And as sunlight glanced from my armour,
The maiden glare blighted you,
I cracked you open,
And victory sprang from my lips.
Challenged and defeated at my feet,
Venting your spleen and soiling the ground,
The crowd roared my name.
Spartacus! Spartacus! Spartacus!