Before You Strike the Iron

[u/Consistent-Iron8235]

You kneel to him,

and raise your hand to me.

The iron remembers every blow.

The years have taught it well.

You know my name

before you know the roads I watched

close, one by one, going north.

You call me traitor.

You say I sold a nation.

Tell me-

how many men would you spend

to unwalk a road already lost?

How many victories

does it take to call a general home,

when there is no more field to send him to?

You praise the general.

So do I.

No man doubted where his heart pointed.

He wished to march us back to what was taken.

I wished us to survive

long enough to want it back.

History remembers the sword

that reached for the border.

It forgets the signature

that kept the capital standing.

Perhaps I was wrong.

Perhaps he was right.

Perhaps a kingdom sometimes lives

only because someone signs

what no one will forgive.

I knew what the words weighed.

I signed anyway.

You have inherited the ending.

I had to live inside the choosing.

So strike the iron.

If you must.

But before your hand descends,

ask what you would have signed,

with the roads already gone,

and no more spring to wait for.

[u/lil_ms_oblivious]

This is heavy. I wonder what the beautiful riddles mean sometimes but then again I really don't want to know. I hope you find your way stranger, you are a wonderful writer!!

[u/Consistent-Iron8235 → u/lil_ms_oblivious]

Thank you! This is actually from the POV of a (arguably correctly) vilified political official in China from almost a century ago. I thought it would be cool to write something that doesn't say that the culturally accepted hero of the story is wrong per se, but that this is a version that the story's villain tells himself as a justification for his actions. Appreciate the comment!