Attack And Receive

ATTACK AND RECEIVE

Clicking with weapons and slimed with sweat,
We hurry headlong upon the fortified foe
Swimming through flames of the bog-ablaze peat
Spear-blades glitter in the shimmering heat

We strike: six hundred, seven and score
Plunging knee-deep through the octopus mire
Swarming up ladders at the palisade walls
Enemies pouring from the wattle-daub halls

And fire; javelins and sling stones fly
Zipping through the midges and the dragonflies
We crest the spikes and fall into a murderous scrum
Eleven hundred bodies in the smoke-red sun

Exhausted: sweat-slathered shields and pikes
Twist amid the soldiers with their splattering gore
The terrified, bellowing masses of men
Stabbing and slashing, wavering, then

Collapsing; the enemy is staggering over
My warriors advance upon the village in flames
I seize my foes' prince and kick him from his feet
Begging for his life through his chattering teeth

I accept: his servitude with nine score slaves
Added to my queendom with his sheep-shorn hills
He wails and crawls before me to his wattle-daub home
I receive my reward: his wicker-wove throne.