Gladius

Lyrics

I was forged by the hundred, a standard issue shape.
A bone grip for your palm, a simple tool of weight.
You draw me from the right hip, to clear the heavy wood,
I am the piston in the engine, if you stand where you should.
I do not want your glory.
I do not want a song.
I just want the shoulders on our left and right to hold where they belong.

Because I am afraid of the open air.
I am afraid of the desperate swing.
When the shield-wall shatters and the line gives way,
And you ask me to do an impossible thing.
I am twenty-four inches of iron, I am built for the crush.
Keep me tight to your ribs, keep me deep in the mud.
If you break the formation, we die.

I know the schema of your wrist, I lock into the joint.
All your blind, human panic driven down into a point.
No slashing at the skyline, no cinematic grace,
Just step, push, twist, retract, and let another take the space.
I am the bloody math of empire.
I am a tooth in the gear.
We are only kept alive by the men standing near.

And I am afraid of the open air.
I am afraid of the desperate swing.
When the shield-wall shatters and the line gives way,
And you ask me to do an impossible thing.
I am twenty-four inches of iron, I am built for the crush.
Keep me tight to your ribs, keep me deep in the mud.
If you break the formation, we die.

I feel your shoulder panic now. I feel the elbow flare.
You raise me like a northern broadsword, grasping at the air.
I am too short for a duel, boy. I am too blunt for a dance.
Get back behind the leather.
Give us a chance.
They are coming through the gap.

The line is fracturing.
The sky is getting vast.
Don't swing me.
Just step. Just push.
Why is there so much space?