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War Pigs, Revisited

“War Pigs, Revisied,” GIF by @aforgrave

The Daily Create, tdc2023 asks us to improve the original rhyme in the second line of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, given that the use of the same word a second time to rhyme with itself seems a bit lame. The prompt was suggested by Audrey Watters (@audreywatters, on Twitter).

Generals gathered in their masses,
Just like witches at black masses.

After working my way through the alphabet substituting the initial letter m in masses and having little success in finding a suitable replacement (asses, basses, gases, passes, stasis, etc.), I typed “words rhyming with masses” into Google search and arrived at the masses page on Rhymezone.

Of the words offered there, the word fasces leapt out as a great option. I arrived at a replacement line.

Generals gathered in their masses,
Right-wing warlords, clutching fasces.*
Evil minds that plot destruction,
Sorcerer of death’s construction.
In the fields the bodies burning,
As the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind,
Poisoning their brainwashed minds.
Oh lord yeah!

*my re-write of the second line

In looking to support the word visually, I then looked for an image that would work.

At first, I was going to use this image, as it clearly highlights the fasces in the image through repetition.

“Military Parade, Rome” (earliest TinEye source)

However, in the end, I decided to use two different, but similar emblems for the graphic, as they provided better symmetry and focus for the text — and also emphasize the continuing use of the symbol, despite its association with fascism:

The Wikipedia entry highlights an intriguing  collection of instances where the fasces symbol continues to show up throughout the world.

The font used in the graphic is Wizards Magic by SpideRaYsfoNtS on dafont.com, available free for personal use.