SAY, ISN'T PERSIA SOMEWHERE NEAR IRAN?
Among the Persian sages
Of the emerging Middle Ages
Was a poet well-versed,
Who wrote quatrains (lines numbering four
That pierce life's mystery to the core)
And then he rehearsed
Them.
Each was a gem,
Carefully written gram for gram
By Omar Khayyam.
His task was earnest:
To justly furnish
Us with questions of which
A good portion
Allow for no decent reply
(Like: "Why does our good fortune
Eventually suffer a glitch?"
Or: Why do we have to die?").
Every version
He wrote
Was written in Persian,
But in order for true believers not to note
That Omar had been agnostic,
Later translations
In civilized nations
Omitted any verses considered too caustic.
WHY DOES THIS BATTLE HAVE TO BE SO HASTY?
In 1065,
Says the British Archive,
The everyday actions
Of the Anglos and the Saxons
Fitted the norm...
Except for an occasional storm
That swept a few miles
Across the British Isles.
In 1066,
The Anglos and the Saxons took their licks
When Norman forces barreled
Right through the armies of King Harold.
The Norman leader bore the moniker
Of William the Conqueror,
And as his name would suggest:
He was the best.
Ever since that point in history,
It has been no mystery
That the English and the French
Have tried to throw a monkey-wrench
Into each other's mug...
Even centuries before the Chunnel was dug.