Classic Poem

Elephants have been tied to the sacred guardian trees,
devastating them! The streets are filled with dust
as the chariots hurry along them. The roadways are
in confusion as the horses go galloping down them.
The fords have turned all muddy because there the weapons
have been washed. Since warriors are gathered there—men
who will fight—many new kings have come so that the earth
bends under the great weight! They are to be pitied
who must think of how the vast space filled with pain
is guarded as if by the iron mouth of a bellows that pants
like an elephant cow, while they feel desire for the girl who has full,
burning breasts tipped with black nipples, who has a glance
which entrances men! Her brothers will not give her to any man
who is not their equal. They have no wish for wealth. Their only
wish is to enter battle. Though the city has warriors with shields
woven of strips and though they have swords that deal out wounds,
though their unwashed heads flash with bits of meat and smell
of blood, though they have long black spears well fashioned
through being turned on a lathe, what
will become of this fine city along the river with its hedges of cotton?