Edmund Partridge Junior High School - Banner Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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THE CONQUEROR The blackened sky ablaze with fire, The corpses piled high, The spirit laden soldiers, The conqueror rides by. His face is tired and haggard, His armour bloodstained and wrecked; His lifeless eyes harshly piercing, Through the scene with blood bedecked. He surveys the gore around him, The banners of victory high; He feels a pain within him, Too many thousands have died. His mind returns to the battlefield, The clanging voice of steel upon steel; The smell of fresh wrought blood, The cries of death one feels. He remembers the war torn bodies, Scattered in heaps and alone; The lance piercing cavalry mounts, The carnaged voices that moan. The fury of repent breaks forth. “Oh my God,” he cries aloud, “My lust for power was great, And my honour for life unbowed. I killed for the love of death, Power was my goal. But why, oh why, did I do it, I carry now a tortured soul.” His hand for his sword doth reach, With a jab through his breast does it go, “I repay now for my sins, Free from imprisoned grief and woe.” From his chest a fountain of blood spurts forth, A look at amity rests in his eyes. Peace has come to this mighty man, Peace to this man who dies. Eric Posen, Grade IX Room 2.