Alexander the Great (poem)

This is a poem I wrote a long time back (maybe 10 years ago) and found in a pile of papers. I thought I'd type it up and post it.

Alexander the Great

From the Black Sea to the Red Sea
to all of Persia's seas,
his kingdom spread more rapidly
than the most infectious gay disease.
In Damascus and in Babylon
or in Athens back in Greece,
Alexander found that war
could bring him that elusive inner peace.

His father led an army
and his mother wore a crown.
Alexander wore rubies
in his satin dressing gown.
Aristotle taught the young man
of literature and of art.
and suddenly his little universe
was tearing him apart.

He said, "I want to see this great big world
and I want to make it mine.
Just like dear Bucephalus,
I'll tame it with my mind."
So he took his father's soldiers
and began claiming the planet's wealth,
Killing all dissenters
and the turmoil within himself.

He kept on routing kingdoms,
and the boundaries of his land grew.
He loved the pride of capturing
something dangerous and new.
And he understood the path to glory
must be littered wide with graves,
and he separated the nuclear families
and sold them off as slaves.

He found a woman to carry his son
for him and a man to lie at his side,
an army to conquer the world for him
and a few servants to keep him satisfied.
And he showed each of those soldiers
what leadership truly meant
as he ordered five lieutenants
to join him in his stately tent.

Yet, still he held his sword
in shame to be ignored
for all the people's love
he simply couldn't afford —
from the boys on the street
that he paid with silver coins
to those goddamn unwashed masses
he'd never be able to join.

And back at his sterile palace —
an oasis of ponds and trees —
he found a lonesome mate
to marry his blood and its disease.
Alexander of Macedonia wanted
to be loved more than to be great.
But now it's much too late as they lift
his body into that wooden crate.