The Poet Soldier Pt.1

The poet soldier arose to address the crowd. Once again his words would inspire and incite them. This was not new. He was either born with the gift of oration or it was well learned and honed. It was a gift well crafted, and now practiced. He enjoyed this more than he would ever admit. His rivals certainly envied his abilities to arouse primal instincts and mass action in the pursuit of a singular cause. This speech, as yet, would be the most important of his young career. He would advance his cause or falter and fade quietly based upon the reception of this moment.

He thought breifly upon how he had advanced to this. His childhood had been as nondescript and inexplicable as are all to the child who experiences it. Only in adolescence did he begin to feel the compulsion to expand his horizons, to look beyond himself, to begin to become the person that now felt the need to gather around him critics and guides to bring him to this particular event. He had spent half a lifetime in annonimity, gradually attaining this new, perplexing, undeniable personage that now overwhelmed his past reality. Although not born to priviledge, he had witnessed it his entire life. There existed always someone of a higher caste to look down upon his unremarkable life; quick to denigrate him and his parentage; but today, he alone would stand upon the noblest stage. Pride, greed and vanity had many times corrupted those who set foot and mouth here. Their ghosts an everpresent reminder that absolute power corrupts. Corpulent men of commerce and purulent politicos with their perfumed, painted wives and ever-younger concubines had often sought this stage of craft for personal gain and power's own intoxication. Humbly he promised himself vigilence, self-discipline and courage of strenghth to be his watchwords.

Determination and ability had advanced his education. He had studied well in the very halls of those he now sought to overthrow; an irony lost to the majority of those now before him. Inquiry, critique, explanation and innate knowledge of all things temporal and spiritual explored, developed the themes expressed in his orations. Blessed with a resonant baritone voice, an undaunted sense of self, an ability to read reactions and adjust accordingly, his orations captured crowds and swayed opinions. This was his gift. This was how he would rise. This was how he would change the status of this land. If they would follow him, he would lead. All this passed in the blink of an eye as the poet soldier arose to address the crowd.