Kaiser

By Brian Okabayashi

21st Century


I am the Kaiser grand
Unfaltering ruler of the mighty German land,
The son of Wilhelm,
Noble sovereign of the
Hapsburgs' voluminous empire.

Long have quarreled my cousins
Nicholas, Czar of the Russian Empire,
Edward of England fair,
And Poincare, father of Free France
Whose empires I now covet.

Cheated, swindled, beguiled
Was my people at Berlin
Back in the fated 1871
When Bismark sold the Prussian strength
For German unity.

Blundering, heinous, fallacious,
Britain and France
For ever dare dreaming
The great Germany defeated
With no shot fired!

My blood boils, my heart trembles:
Ire in my eye burns bright
With rage, jealousy
Of what the murderous French
And Brit dogs have
Stolen from me!

I head the advice
That my crown bears:
Upon it the skull and crossed-bone,
The symbol of battle:
The Death Head Hussars
Whose massacre I commanded
Long ago against
Napoleon's stalwart ardor.

Anschlus with Austria complete,
Serbia rebels,
A march unto my victory!

Hark! The rebels aided by the Russian
O dear!
Thus away from there,
Across the Line Maginot
Into France, the feigned foe!

Russia's defeat is nigh;
My hand signs their surrender,
My victory in the east.

Wilson and his Yankee army
Enters battle against me,
With Turkey, Austria faltering,
My list of allies grows thin.

They call my armies Hun
And me the "One-Horned Devil"
Mocking the spear in the crown grand.
Who has the final laugh
We soon shall see!

Atop my U-boot here I stand,
My sabre drawn unto France's heart,
Imperial waxed, uniform pressed,
And monocle polished,
Dining fine with courtier company,
Glorious jewels adorn my person.

From my kingly state
Down onto the dead and dying
I peer endlessly whose
Peril is not mine.

One million German corpses
Line the trench
At Somme and Verdun,
But no sympathy with
The fallen do I share.
No avail, we march on!

I am distraught, pondering deep:
The fight for France thickens,
The Amis fight bravely;
I fear now numbered are my days.

Bloodshed, battle, butchery,
Europe ruined, never the same again!
Stained forever with my blunder;
Much guilt upon my shoulders hangs.

"Mein Reich und ich geben auf!"
from the cratered trench I shouted;
the French devils, Brit dogs,
and Yankee cows have the day won!

Ending here is my Deutschesreich
All its wonder, all its splendor.

I am forced abdicate,
Of dark depression my country reeks:
Versailles, the maggot in my side,
Further gnaws to us poverty!

Little remorse I hold for the fated,
Those who perished, perish so
For their emperor,
Their sacred obligation fulfilled!

History blames me,
So not is the truth:
The rifle-wielder, soldier
Is he who so murdered--not I,
Sophisticated Kaiser of my war lost.
A vicarious killer I am!

Germany now has fallen,
The darkness consumes us,
Uncertainty is our one ally,
Along the Rhine,
France the damned
Whoso rejected justice!

Our only hope is the frail Weimar,
Hindenburg's democracy,
Corporal Hitler will my war rekindle!
'Tis not luxurious Kaiserhood!

DayPoems Poem No. 1712
<a href="http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1712.html">Kaiser by Brian Okabayashi</a>

The DayPoems Poetry Collection, www.daypoems.net
Timothy Bovee, editor

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