The Pushers

The Pushers

Intense groaning emits from four men’s bodies

as they lean hard against a thick wooden pole.

 

The wood bends somewhat under the pressure

and then there begins a slow creaking sound.

 

In the damp stone floor, there are notches cut out

where the men set their bare feet to push.

 

Watching these four young muscular heroes

another team steps to the opposite side of the pole.

 

After three minutes the last grain of sand has fallen.

Groaning is now heard from these four young men.

 

The intense heat of the fire sends warm rivulets

of sweat rolling down their shining upper bodies.

 

Fire so bright and intense that each team of four men

is changed after every strenuous half hour of pushing.

 

Totally spent, they ravage fresh water from skins

resting and panting fully half of each working hour.

 

Happily, each of the teams push in 12 hours shifts…

It is a great honor that these men have been given.

 

When their night is done there is the long descent

four hundred steps down to get to the base of Pharos.

 

Laughing, one of the groups stops on the way home,

this time they share wine and revelry with others.

 

“Hello my friends, come in, have some good drink.

Let me buy some wine for the best of Pharos’ pushers.”

 

“Did your little mirror save any ships tonight?”

A drunken man taunts the four as they sit down.

 

“He bet on the blue team at the Poseidon games…”

the first man says to the four lads, “I won with you!”

 

 

 

 The Seventh and final wonder of the ancient world was Pharos, the Great Lighthouse at Alexandria in northern Africa. Standing more than four hundred feet high, a massive mirror directed the suns rays by day and the light of huge fires at night, protected ships in the harbor of Alexandria the center of the ancient world and bringing to hope to those on the open sea.