Ode To Victor Hugo - 90 ‘the Miserable' napoleon & Unseasonable Clouds Poem by Freeyad Ibrahim

By Freeyad Ibrahim

Napoleon was an artillery officer
All his battle plans were designed to suit the heavy armament
His key to victory
He pounded the weak points with grape-shot
And shaped and resolved battles with cannon fire
His was a markman's genius
To beat in the squares, pulverize the regiments
break the lines, maul and scatter the mass.
This was ceaseless hammering
Done by the use of cannon.
The first infantry penetrated far
And unable to get out
trapped like bears in a pit.
The 38 loopholes in the wall of the garden
pierced by the English,
looks ready to renew the battle.
An unseasonably clouded sky sufficed
to bring about the collapse of a world.
Had 20 years of warfare worn the blade
as well as the scabbard, thus, soul and body?

Ruins often acquire the dignity of monuments.

The daylight of history is merciless
Although it is composed of light, it casts shadows
where once only brilliance was to be seen
Making of one man two images
Each opposed to the other
So that the darkness of the despot
Counteracts the majesty of the leader

FRYAD HUGO