Bloody Brotherhood
Oh my dear brother.
You and I come from the same womb,
But circumstances have ripped us apart.
For this piece of metal that adorns the head of the monarch,
You have tormented me for most of my life.
I remember a time when you and I were children,
Before this great evil has manifested in the form of the corrupt succession,
We were inseparable, and stood by each other.
I remember once I fell into the water reserves tank.
Everyone panicked, but you instinctively picked up a big boulder and smashed the tank, saving me.
If I were a chestnut, you would be the timber from the tree.
You fuel the fire that is used to roast me,
And all I can do in my iron wok is endure my lengthy suffering.
We were of the same entity,
So wherefore must you be so eager to kill me?
Explication
This is a free verse poem. It tells of one brother’s thoughts of grief over how the succession of their father’s throne has torn them apart. The central theme of this poem and what the narrator is trying to get across to his brother is that kin should not want each other dead. The narrator is trying to persuade his brother to end the grudge. The first stanza summarizes the situation. The second then goes back in time to talk about simpler times, before this grudge emerged. In the stanza, the brother asks his brother why they are doing this.
As a free verse poem, this poem does not have a rhyme scheme or a strict rhythmic pattern. There is an extended metaphor in the third stanza, in which the brothers are compared to a tree and chestnuts, symbolizing the paradoxical relationship between the two brothers. Also, “iron wok” is a metaphor because the brother is saying his state of helplessness is like a chestnut in an iron wok. In line 5, the “m” sound is repeated as an alliteration with the words “me, most, my.”
This fits the theme of war because it is a personal aspect on the grand scheme of things.
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