The Sacrifice of Leonidas

You will have a son

And you will

Hand him over to me

When the time is right

I will train him

He will go into battle

And he will, most likely, die

I would prepare yourself

For loss

If I were you

It is a function of living

In a superior society

Now, if you have a daughter

I will take her as well

I will take

All your daughters

And every son

And they will serve the state

And in doing so

They will contribute

Something the sons and daughters

Of Athens

Rarely ever get the chance
To do

We Spartans understand

That life is not about

The individual

It is about how we move

Towards something greater

As a collective body

A community

We used to move inches

Now we move miles

With each lost child

We use up their potential so fast

The children

It almost makes me wish

We could do away

With the whole swath of them

Once they reach ten or eleven

And start in on the newer ones

The very next day

I have steeled myself

Against the sympathy

That might arise

When thinking about

What might have come after

The tenth or eleventh year

Because, you see,

We know what comes

After that

We know there is marriage

And there are kids

And we need them

The children

So we’ll have to keep

Some of them alive

So they can grow up

And give us more children

But other than that?

Some public service

But more often than not

The consumption

Of limited public goods

And infrastructures

And the sucking up

Of resources

That are already

Under strain

The other day

With my back turned

I heard one of the mothers

Of the soldiers

Lost in the last battle

Call me ‘heartless’

‘Heartless’ would be

Allowing what we’ve built here

To fester

And dry up

All because I love my son

Too much

To risk losing him

The sacrifice cannot belong

To all but us

Can it?

Can it?

I have often said

That the greatest test

Will be the day

You hold something you love

Over a cliff

And let go

Until you do that

Can you even know

How much

You truly loved it?

And until you let go

How can you find

Something else?

A greater love

Because it was born
Out of selflessness

I have spent my life

Standing over loss

Opening my hands

Again and again

Waiting for a deeper conviction

I know

Will come