Challenging Poetry

China: the terracota army of the first emperor of China

can they be toy soldiers
when an emperor calls?
no green stamped army
for his burial—
eight thousand different faces
guard the east,
each one unique
in clay serenity.
buried in mercury
and the screams of the living—
they face the dawn,
ready for two thousand years
to march, at their emperor’s call.

all the king’s horses.
all of his men.

line count: 15

Author's Note ▶︎

I like this archeological legend (I'm not sure what else to call it) mostly because of its grandeur combined by the sense that it's like a child's box of soldiers--toys for the emperor to carry with him into the afterlife. It's like the pyramids--larger than life, and like the ship burials they've found in England--hidden, mysterious, protected through the years.

The soldiers were meant to march, of course. I think it's interesting that the emperor's barren wives and concubines were buried with him (one assumes that some even might have been buried voluntarily) and the craftsmen who built the tomb were buried alive to guard its secrets, but he didn't call on eight thousand volunteers from the army to fill in the ranks.

It's so much easier to sacrifice people who don't carry weapons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army