Commissioned warrior saints within a world
that groans and wails beneath a tyrant’s boot
sit idly with their battle banners furled,
and watch the tyrant’s minions rape and loot.
Their shining King has bid them boldly stand
against the hardened strength of all their woe,
but they in fearful sloth dodge his command,
avoiding confrontation with the foe.
Yet on their smooth and shiny shields, inscribed
in fiery letters all inlaid with gold,
there gleams a motto to them all ascribed,
an excerpt from the Law they’re to uphold:
“The wicked man will praise those like to him,
but such as keep the Law contend with them.”

—David Jackson Lohnes
1997-98

Notes:

I wrote this some time during the 97-98 school year. The reference to “all our woe” is a reference to Paradise Lost I first learned in EN 504: Milton in the Fall of 97. I remember that what initially sparked it was the realization that the last half of Proverbs 28:4 was a line of iambic pentameter. I believe I first recast the rest of the verse to get a rhyming couplet, and then the rest of the poem was built around that.