Come December Poem by Ruta Mohapatra

Reading Herodotus
While sipping hot chocolate
A bright Sunday winter afternoon
All quiet
Except the sound of endless constructions

The brew is thick and dark
Like the storm
Over the Bay of Bengal
Swirling, lifting, moving,
The sea water towards the shore

Cambyses,
Wrote Herodotus,
Like all despots of this world,
Walked towards his fateful death
Leaving a trail of blood and gore

Centuries have since passed
And
Hundreds of despots have risen
To rewrite
That painful history

Oh Herodotus, had you known
That there was nothing uncommon
About men destroying men
Would you have taken the pain
To record the tale of Cambyses
And the folly of mortal men? ? ?