by Jeffrey Burghauser (May 2026)
Part One is available here.
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Narrator:
When Roma was great, the lone social estate
Permitted to utter the oath
To fight for what Roman dominion had blessed
From Palestine to the Iberian West
Was that in whose essence the land was caressed
By Hope & Nostalgiä, both.
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The warrior’s throes were restricted to those
For whom the abundance of Rome
Inhered on the map and inside of the breast—
The soldierly arts were acknowledged the best,
Exclusive reserve of those men who possessed
The thing we once labeled a “home.”
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Where national pride is a slatternly bride
Contorting in basins of ash,
The Army life grows more degraded than sport
Or careless assurances; manning the fort
Became the regrettably common resort
Of those who required the cash.
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They hadn’t a hint the celestiäl mint
Had minted its ultimate coin…
The product of History’s crystal ălém-
Bĭc…Heaven’s corundum field’s terminal gem:
The thing Jesus Christ had accomplished for them.
The saint was inspired to join.
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Immediately, all the soldiers could see
The merit inhering in him:
Courageous, obedient, first in the race.
Sebastian combined an adorable face
With humble tenacity—Christiän grace
With pagan refinement of limb.
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Tenacious to learn how combatants discern
Exactly what order’s a-wing
By hearing the trumpet semantically pealed,
Sebastian could deftly deploy in the field
Both species of javelin, dagger & shield,
The thrusting spear, cudgel & sling.
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Sebastian possessed, and commanded with zest,
However, a cutlass akin
To nothing—whose arc is more terribly wise,
Whose phosphorous-dazzle seduces more eyes
Than anything found amid Roman supplies:
It sunders the sinews of Sin.
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Child:
It sunders all bands.
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Chorus:
__________Render praise to the hands
Conveying it down from above.
Behold the announcement of Providence pass—
A lithe, unpolluted bucolical lass
Across the crepuscular moors; an ămbáss-
ădór of superior love.
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Narrator:
A heart without Christ is topography, iced,
Attired in hamlets bereft
Of civilized potency, under whose sward
Extends these reserves, an anastomose[*] cord
Of silver & sapphire, never explored
Correctly. Sebastian was deft,
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Instructing his grand hĭppăgógĭ[†] to land
On pebbly shores of a firth,
And letting the Gospel’s expectantly massed
Battalions deftly invade & hold fast
Their primitive hearts as, in ages long past,
The legions had settled the earth.
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[*] Interconnecting.
[†] A type of ship.
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Table of Contents
Jeffrey Burghauser is a teacher in Columbus, Ohio. He was educated at SUNY-Buffalo and the University of Leeds. He currently studies the five-string banjo with a focus on pre-WWII picking styles. A former artist-in-residence at the Arad Arts Project (Israel), his poems have appeared (or are forthcoming) in Appalachian Journal, Fearsome Critters, Iceview, Lehrhaus, and New English Review. Jeffrey’s book-length collections are available on Amazon, and his website is www.jeffreyburghauser.com.
Follow NER on Twitter @NERIconoclast
