Vast kingdoms once did span this shrinking sphere

 

        Vast kingdoms once
            did span this shrinking sphere.
        One monarch bold
            a million men could rule.
        To teach the dumb,
            protect the poor from fear,
                To sow these seeds,
                    a scepter was his tool.
        If I could have
            an empire of my friends
                to aid and guide,
                    the happiness I'd find.
        I'd plant and reap
            a love that never ends
                and hoard it in the coffers
                    of my mind.

            But now I see
                my gifts were bribes,
                    not seeds.
            Good will
                was to enslave you,
                    not to free.
            I am a tyrant
                out of fear and greed.
            From loneliness it is
                that I aggress.
            Your solitude
                was never poverty.
                    It is my bounty
                        that is barrenness.



 

Reviews

[TLK]

Excellent inversion of the principles of power in the second stanza.