Waterloo



Ten days after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent

Napoleon escaped from Elba, where he'd spent

... A year, exiled, after his defeat in eighteen fourteen

Ending his empire, which'd fallen apart at the seams



Returning to France triumphantly and retaking stand

On March 20th, seemingly, with things well at hand

But it was short-lived, lasting only one hundred days

Until Napoleon ran into Wellington at Waterloo place



Where miscalculations had prominently figured in ...

To the problems encountered on those days of June

Including courier messages improperly delivered ...

And Napoleon's failure to bring up reserves, sitting



In secondary positions where they weren't neeeded

Creating massive holes in the lines totally unheeded

And at the end of it all, some forty-five thousand men lay 

Either dead or wounded, within three square miles of clay



- Tristram



© Christopher W. Thomas

written 11:15am 6/19/99

for the date - June 18th, 1999