Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from Gladiator.
Note: I wrote this after catching the last five or ten minutes of the movie.




Petulant Child

I can see the crowd closing in
But I can only cough and choke
These gasps are my last
and the crowd is not for me
they crowd around him
My people...
you forget your emperor
the petulant little child
is dying five feet
from the hero
And they leave bearing him
and I lay forgotten
now, even light abandons me
the world has forgotten me
YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN
your emperor
Time spins backwards
and I lay
against my
mother's breast
crying
petulant child
they said
no, a troubled child
misunderstood
and now memory leaves
abandons me
no, time has simply gone
back before memory began
and so this child
fades away