Sworn before steel was drawn, I bind with breath, not chain. Unseen, yet kings have bowed to me. Break me, and wars are born. Keep me, and lives are steered. Forged in a moment, I outlast men.

I stand in the desert, ancient and grand, Built by human hands, yet I seem so planned. With a square base and sides that rise to a point, I’ve watched centuries pass at history’s joint.

Black, my blood, In scrivenings old, Darkness in murder, In paradise bold, In some ancient scripture, Ballast to the soul, Minimal purchase, If measured in gold

A cousin of the mighty Rex, I weigh in smaller, but mayhap meaner. Steven Spielberg made a movie star of my siblings and me, do we star in your nightmares now? Little kids wear me on their jammies, but if they met me they’d run away screaming. Birds are now my closest kin, to them I bequeathed my feathers and skin.

I'm ordinary and unremarkable everywhere, except on the battlefield