by Nick Gisburne
The architects and builders of the gates
Expected they would keep the city strong.
They reckoned, though, without the fickle Fates
Delivering a plan to prove them wrong.
The priests who put their plea before the gods
Sought stone and steel, impervious to force.
A portal of impenetrable rods
Was fashioned in the forges of its source.
But those who rule above us take their sport
From consequences ruinous to man.
The swagger of the city folk fell short
When what the Fates devised for them began.
These gates will stand until the heavens fall.
The city burned when bandits broke the wall.
