They had held where others wavered They had stood and bought the day Bronze and breath against the breaking Keeping fear itself at bay Then from farther than a spear can answer From the edge no shield can read Came a feather through the uproar And a different kind of deed Paris’ arrow Thin and sudden in the light Paris’ arrow Finds the seam, not face to face in fight Not the crash of shield on shield Not the oath that warriors know Just a hard and hidden answer In the flight of Paris’ arrow Diomedes drove like winter iron Still not emptied, still not done Though the field had stripped its heroes He was holding into sun Then the shaft bit through the moving Through the dust and through the stride Found the foot that kept him standing Turned his fury to the side Paris’ arrow Thin and sudden in the light Paris’ arrow Finds the seam, not face to face in fight Not the crash of shield on shield Not the oath that warriors know Just a hard and hidden answer In the flight of Paris’ arrow Pain can humble even courage Not by honor, not by shame But by entering where motion lives And changing how a man can claim All his weight against the battle All his will against the press One small wound can tilt the balance One small wound can make it less He did not fall in ruined terror Did not beg the field to spare He turned and gave his bitter answer To the hand that struck from elsewhere But blood was real and ground was distant And the fight was not his now So the line lost more than muscle It lost another iron vow Paris’ arrow Thin and sudden in the light Paris’ arrow Leaves its wound and leaves the fight Not the glory sung at feasts Not the clean and open blow But the war is changed all the same By the flight of Paris’ arrow And those who watched it felt it quickly How the day kept shedding names First the king and now another Drawn away from dust and flame So it happens in long battles Not by thunder every time Sometimes fate prefers a whisper With a feathered edge and spine Let the brave still praise the spearpoint Let the strong still test the shield Yet never mock the distant weapon That can thin the hardest field For the hour was turning darker And the plain had learned to know How a whole line starts to weaken With the flight of one more bow Paris’ arrow Thin and sudden in the light Paris’ arrow Cuts the thread, then leaves the sight And the men who still remain Feel the silence under noise When the day is being broken By a wound that makes the choice
