In time the temporary withdrawal
Became a way of life. How long
Before they could admit there'd be
No going back , before they ceased
To live off rumours of a prince,
A scion of the royal house
In hiding, living hand to mouth,
About to gather troops to hurl
The haughty enemy back from
The gates of Ctesiphon -
which was
A pilfered ruin, a harmless tourists'
Curiosity somewhere beyond
The brave new city of Baghdad?

So they erected the stone inscribed
With words that speak to home though home
Has long since ceased to speak such words,
A witness to a way of life
Corroded by fidelity
That is a kind of willing madness;
A story told and then retold,
Whose referents are elsewhere,
And now lives only in these minds
That still repeat the litany
Of what was lost, till they too die