Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Sibling Rivalry

The Mourning Wall

Did he deserve that fate,
bestilled by spade blow on the foothill of Palatine?
Suffer now I the just wrath of Mars?
Shall I curse the vulture’s augury too late
and set the cornerstone atop the brother of mine,
raising it high, with lofting ramparts that view afar?
Curled embraced, we two, and slept like whelps in sylvan verge
in strange days of Lupa and playful Picus, we nurtured in wild lands
and free from malice, learnt well the resolve of the viverrid kill.
Then rescued years, enveloped in the shepherd’s brood,
a new and open world in our hands.
We aspiring, questing, were to no challenge still.
In contest he excelled, never assuaging the taint of failure
Champion of boyhood contests of manly skills and brawn
Driven to feat of cunning, strength, and will
Prone to mockery, then in playfulness and merrily.
Alas, were it always thus.
Turned towards the act of industry, such taunts would not be borne.
This wall, crooked and ill fit will be renewed.
I vow no enemy will vault nor, declined, will it admit
though he hurl insult at workmanship
and my city arise on his bones.

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