Poem: "La grande guerra"
This poem came out of the March 2, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from
ng_moonmoth and
dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "shield" square in my 3-1-21 card for the Celtic Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by
ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the series Alternate Artists as Warmongers.
WARNING: This poem has been described as nightmare fuel by a reader. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers and possibly also triggers. It includes Leonardo da Vinci as an alternate warmonger, Piero di Cosimo de' Medici as a bedridden warmonger, war machines, Lorenzo de' Medici as a patron of multiple warmongers, Michelangelo as a master of chemical warfare, graphic descriptions of war, Italy conquering Europe, then Africa and Asia, tyranny, and other mayhem. If these are touchy topics for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before deciding whether this is something you want to read.
"La grande guerra"
Leonardo da Vinci
loved art and war
in equal measure.
Of the two, though, war
turned the larger profit.
An early patron of his was
Piero di Cosimo de' Medici,
who ruled Florence from
his bed due to illness.
During the war with Venice,
Leonardo sent sketches of
war machines and ideas
for undermining the enemy.
He built a ballista and
a catapult, with ammunition
that would explode on impact.
He made the first outlines
of his traveling fortress.
Later on, Lorenzo de' Medici
took over and gathered up
even more warcrafters.
He brought in Michelangelo,
the great chemist, who devised
alchemies that could be bottled
and flung from catapults to burst
among the enemy and poison them.
Leonardo got so excited that he built
a catapult with a special padded cradle
to hurl the bottles without breaking them.
Ghastly green clouds crawled across
the battleground, choking the enemy.
Leonardo perfected his traveling fortress,
which crept along like a deadly tortoise.
He also constructed a steam cannon
that blasted through enemy infantry.
The Medici forces swarmed over Italy,
then spilled into the rest of Europe,
sweeping away everything in their way.
Even the butcher's bill was undercut
by the new discoveries, because
Leonardo's armored inventions
shielded the soldiers from injury,
and Michelangelo had devised
medicines as well as poisons
to keep the casualties alive.
From Europe the battle spread
down to Africa and over to Asia,
until everything in reach had
been utterly subjugated.
It was like nothing
that the world had
ever seen before.
They called it
La grande guerra,
the Great War.
The world had been
welded together under
the hammer of war,
a mighty achievement.
Leonardo smiled over
the victory parade, and then
went back to his drawing board.
* * *
Notes:
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was (in our world) an artist who dabbled in war design. For the purposes of this poem, he was a polyoptimized genius genocidal maniac.
Michelangelo (1475-1564) was a painter with a knack for chemistry. In this poem, he turned his understanding of poisonous pigments to evil.
Piero di Cosimo de' Medici (1416-1469) was a ruler of Florence plagued by poor health. Here an art patron, there he waged war from his bed.
Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492) also ruled Florence and patronized the arts, particularly Michelangelo. So in this poem, he was a vigorous patron of warcrafters.
Even in our world, Leonardo da Vinci was famous for his war machines. These included a catapult, a ballista, a tank, a steam cannon, cluster bombs, and various horse-powered warcarts. Compare his list of designs with the history of war machines in general.
Creativity and insanity are just two sides with a very fine line between them. The relation may lie in how these personality types use their brains.
World War I was originally called "The Great War."
The Great War - La grande guerra
La grande guerra si avvicina e io combatto ancora per i vivi.
Historians debate what might have happened without WWI, including better and worse timelines. Some argue that without WWI, the two wars would have compacted into an even worse war. This poem basically moves that catastrophic compacted war 500 years earlier, releasing weapons of mass destruction on a world much less prepared for them.
Painters used to make their own paints, which required a knowledge of chemistry. Renaissance colors included some seriously toxic ingredients. It is a short step from toxic paints to chemical warfare.
The signature weapons of WWI included tanks, machine guns, and gas -- all of which could have been developed in some form with Renaissance technology.