A taste of time

A spirit thrust me to the Middle Ages
When kings and vassals all set sail
On a holy crusade with knights and pages
To the east in search of the Holy Grail.

"My liege", I asked, "will we kill and ravage.
Is not taking life a profanity?"
"No problem Joe, collateral damage
We are advancing our faith, Christianity."

If we kill infidels are we infidels too?
Do I close my eyes and follow along?
Am I allowed to think this adventure through?
Is it possible that the king is wrong?

But it’s treason if our king we deride.
He can do no wrong, by ancient decree.
The feudal pledge to which we’re tied
Is, "...we fight for king and country."

"My liege, why are we on foreign soil?
There’s a premonition hard to believe:
The Holy Grail is a hoard of oil."
The spirit bade, it was time to leave.

Another trip through history’s tableaus
To July the fourth seventeen seventy six
Five centuries forward to enlightened egos
When "…for king and country" did not persist.

Tom Jefferson then rewrote that pledge
By simply changing the "and" with an "or."
Putting the world’s tyrants clearly on edge
Clarifying what we should be fighting for.

To the Middle Ages shall we regress?
Opposing the king was an act of sedition.
Else we stay and patriotically profess
Loyalty to country and its Constitution.