The Lesson
This man sustained a sword blow to his leg and a second across his face. He
survived both -you can see from the healed bone -though he would have been
blind in the left eye. This is the injury that killed him, a sword thrust
from the front so deep that it penetrated the spine. (BBC2 documentary on
the excavation of a Celtic hill fort).
He'd always said his son wouldn't play
with knives or guns, but gave up
when he found him making his own.
His first swords, cut from card, bent
upon cotton. As Dad was it not duty
to tape two and slip in a splint of cane?
The sword -a romantic weapon-yes-
but it rends flesh and splits bone
as sure as any gun. "Remember
it's just a game," he urged his son,
but showing the blade found him pinned
on the end, and so made another,
"just for defence". As the son struck,
old reflex deflected and counter-struck.
With modest grin that father said,
"Strike to the centre, the atemi points
are up the middle from groin to chin
and both sides from ear to knee.
Well that's enough for today." But the son
spun, feinted to groin, struck inverted V
before ribs meet and touched the jugular notch.
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