Less concrete till dried

* less concrete till dried *
I often question if we ever knew them
Ever knew the complications which drove them
When we look back and of history avail ourselves
We can see the patterns clear and so obvious
Of why a certain course was taken
How each decision had been made
Each moment in history transpired
Exactly as it states in the documents written after
As we would now expect such course to take
Yet when the decision made
The decider was not to history slave
Did not have the awareness of those other events
Either in the past or present or future soon to be
Which would in correlation with this decision
Dictate the way history would be made
Perhaps they made guesses and assumptions placed
On the manner others would act
Or of battles expected to have a certain duration
Yet as most of these deciders knew
Or would soon learn as history bluntly taught
Nothing is completely certain until completely fought
Even if they thought they knew the end result
Always at the edges the chance of the upset
The Persians slowed by 300
The failure of the BEF become triumph of Dunkirk
Stalingrad refusing to yield
The egos and insensibilities of men at war
The great moments and the sour
Of Hood and Wales sunk ingloriously
An archduke assassinated due to a chauffeur's wrong turn
Even with all the technology weighed
Logistics and factories and fibre of men arrayed
A decision had to made
To go forward and release the dogs of war
Or practice caution and keep powder dry
And looking back at that moment
Convalescing all of life lead before
Perhaps not even seeing this was the moment
For so many others past or yet to be might be
This moment when history later with hindsight's absolute clarity
Would say this was when the tide turned
The insight was brightest or design failed
The path was irrevocably set to defeat or victory
And all which would follow was more or less inevitable history.