Promptly Poetry

The Brit Secret

The Brit Secret

On the playing fields of Eton?
Nah, that’s where the donkeys are bred.
It was what the lions were fed
in the teeming crowds of Asia,
the sun-hazed African plains,
remote fastness of the antipodes,
forgotten islands far from home.
That burning in the belly fired the heart
that stood its ground at Rorke’s Drift,
and drove the Light Brigade to charge,
held Gordon steadfast in Khartoum,
while Captain Oates went out in the white waste.
In all of these, the heat that kept them true
came from inside, the food of the cubs
so soon to form those unbending ranks
that marched where ordered and fought as one
in foreign fields of empire accidental
and died with not a word of protest,
controlled by asses, yes,
but raised on Marmite.


Line Count: 20
Free Verse
For Promptly Poetry, Week 37
Prompt: Write a poem inspired by your favorite food or beverage.
Note: This is a Brit poem containing Brit references and Brit quotations. If others are interested, I can explain its various allusions.