In the Next Life, Canto III, stanzas 15-18

On down to Ciral’s time, it would be told,
and children, as they grew up, would be coached,
that, although killed, it never had gone cold,
and harm would come to any who approached.

That warning didn’t stop him like the rest.
He bore the courage owned by someone with
a mission, which in this case was to test some things
he’d read regarding ancient myth.

That’s not to say that he was unafraid.
He’d heard the stories, but thought them unreal.
The fear was thus allowed to be outweighed
by eagerness that he alone could feel.

For while his peers were listening to tales
to learn the parts into which they’d been cast,
this odd one, when he’d finished work details,
would soak up knowledge from a distant past.

©2010 Louis A. Merrimac