The King

I saw the king,
Like he was when alive,
Golden hair and white teeth.
I asked him,
When all the wool spun out
By the fates,
Will be gathered up again
Into the skein.
He laughed
"I have pissed in the Oxus,
Spilled my blood in the Hydapses,
Drank wine on the banks of the Tigris,
Was reborn in the Nile.
All of my wisdom is this:
The sword and nothing more.
Strike the strands and sever the knot,
The means and the end are the edge."

- Paul Washington