James Brockway
In Syracuse
Rising over Syracuse, the sun
sends flights of magpies cackling through the trees,
where, deep in this quarry, the Athenian soldiers died.
Seven thousand B.C. prisoners of war,
their battle lost, languished and perished here,
where now the bourgainvillaea scents the breeze
and guided tourists stare.
Hewing rocks for temples was the task
their captors set for them, not building
Burma railways or bridging River Kwais.
Techniques have altered. the world is re-arranged,
but still some stubborn rule applies.
The law of Archimedes has not changed,
nor humankind its ways.
Page(s) 113
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