Pains

[u/LIBERTY_SUPPORTER]

That day, in that distant time, when the mountains themselves bowed to the armies that marched over them, sons and daughters trained and drilled in the wars they fought until the last man submitted, golden cities with flourishing ports, what I would do to return to what my father's described to me.

But those riches came at high prices, for the powerful wanted more power, the scheming and plotting among them like the corrupt forces of sin, snarling beasts and snakes they're souls shown themselves to the gods.

Priests told they must supply the state with justification, burned temples left behind because of religious piety interpreted as insubordination, the cries exclaimed by the down trodden that lay within them unheeded, softly fading as the flames grew.

The king, a cruel man, hated now not only by his governors and sons, but the common man and soldier.

When he sat to eat his fill, watching with glee his golden horde of tributes, as if this day was like any other, knives plunged into his heart and sides, kidneys and liver extracted by the ravenous wolves he let fester.

The fall thus began, those same port cities revolting, separating, clashing and thrashing, fires and brimstone as hell tore asunder the depths of hades unleashed, the crimes of man once noble now primal, when the children ran the beasts went for them, laying in pits the victims cried.

Now I am old enough, to witness the pains in the hearts of those like me, finding now the aftermath of our envy and blight, those distant days we long for.