Cost of Loyalty
What is the cost of loyalty?
A Head served up
on the tyrant’s platter,
arms severed,
clothes charred,
body bruised.
An arrow finds an infant’s throat
before a drop of water could.
A mother prepares her son’s armour,
one last time.
A child curls up on a headless corpse.
An allegiance refused,
an allegiance proclaimed—
What is the cost of this loyalty?
Roots watered by blood,
soil drenched
in the memory of sacrifice,
trees stripped bare of fruit—
fallen sons,
grieving daughters,
orphaned children.
Then, tell me,
what is the cost of this loyalty?
You wouldn’t know, for you turn your gaze.
I wouldn’t know, for I haven’t yet paid it.
Loyalty demands
an age sacrificed,
an existence consumed—
unquestioning,
unwavering,
unrelenting submission.
Loyalty demands being subdued.
Of a deer bowing his head
before the hunter’s strike,
knowing death in dignity
is always
sweeter than honey.
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