Bad Poetry: Moche Shield

This week's Poets & Storytellers United prompt invites reactions to works of art. 

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this artefact was molded of copper, decorated with gold, silver, turquoise, glass beads, and originally with woven fabric, by or for a Moche warrior in Peru in the first century CE. The owl image was made separately and attached in such a way that the head moved a bit and the wings fluttered when the shield moved. If nothing else, the complexity of the shield might have distracted enemies from throwing spears or shooting arrows to trying to steal the work of art. 

On his shield he put a night bird,

And it glittered in the sunshine,

And it shimmered in the moonlight,

And its wings flapped when he moved it,

And its head bobbed as if watching

Any who were watching him move.

Every bead and fold of fabric,

Every curve of onlaid metal

(It was all of precious metal),

Every wink of sun through beady

Night bird eyes over his shoulder,

Spoke to all who saw him walking:

"Here behold a famous warrior,

Much admired by all the Moche.

Who strikes him will fight a hundred

Moche warriors seeking vengeance."

And there were nights when a watchman

Told himself, "This is the Owl Man,

Chief among the Moche warriors,

Come to take our gold and silver.

Better not to see him coming

Better say: I saw a night bird

Shimmering in the summer moonlight

As if made of gold and silver.

Let him take what he came seeking.

None of us need fight the Owl Man."

And there were days when a warrior

Said: "Ho! I will fight the Owl Man!

I'll win honor, I'll win glory,

People bow when I step forward,

Hold my feet when I am seated,

Carry my things when I travel..."

And his spear bounced off the owl shield,

And Owl Man returned it to him

Straight and swift, with the curare 

Sinking where it gashed his shoulder,

And the warrior hurried homeward

Ere its poison could destroy him...

If he reached home, if he fell down

On the homeward path, the Owl Man

Never asked, but added his spear

To the Owl Man's own equipment

Honored was the mighty Owl Man

Till at last luck turned against him

And he fell down on the war path.

Then they gathered his equipment

And divided up his weapons,

But the owl shield buried with him.

Never would another Moche

Represent himself as Owl Man.

Owl Man's name was long remembered,

Stories told to younger Moche,

Spirit called on as companion;

Even hundreds of years later,

When the Moche sleep forgotten,

Owl shield says to all who see it:

I belonged to a great warrior,

Loved and feared by all my people.