|
|
Jerry H. Jenkins reads
Giant of Extremadura
in RealAudio format.
|
|
Beside the medical museum's door,
a giant's skeleton is standing guard.
The ravages on this great armature
suggest his life was brief, his living hard.
Its bones reveal his battles. Some are broken,
most are pitted. Stains of mercury
still cling to them, their patina the token
of doctors' treatments in his century.
Extremadura Giant, grenadier,
through force of arms destroyed his enemy.
Now he serves as morbid souvenir
of glory's cruel and final irony:
Within a woman's arms, he met defeat
by syphilis's stealthy spirochete.
|
|
|
