A BRIEF HISTORY OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

In 75 A.D., 50,000 Roman soldiers
surround walled Jerusalem catapulting
30-ton limestone balls, dead animals,
diseased bodies, captured soldiers,
flaming objects, sand bags to blind—
all hurtling from 26-foot stock houses
built from 12 miles of trees in 10 days,
designed by Vitruvius—skeletal silhouettes
darkening a blue Mediterranean sky—
the launching mechanism a sinewy
rope from Achilles’ tendons of cows—
two and a half miles hammered, soaked,
twisted, dried, bowstring stretched
between wood arms, 9-ton torsion
pulling the slider, winch handle manually
cranked, winding the rope around the cylinder,
cocking the claw and trigger block, whipping
back and catapulting the missile 123 yards,
boulders blackened to disguise, demolishing
protective walls, city in flames. For the next
almost 2000 years it’s the same—
only much better, and only far worse.