Julius Caesar

I look up with hope at her outstretched wings

Holding our freedom and might together.

Her wide veins will hold all that the world brings

But soon greed will set flame to her feather.

Ambition conceives both disdain and fear

That rely on public will for their strength,

But fancying that fate holds him as dear

He pummels ahead a great height and length.

Why does the world shake like a thing unfirm?

The Earth trembles at iniquity’s sway.

Liberty cracks under that selfish germ;

Loyalty to our stomach leads us astray.

I look down with grief at her outstretched claws

That raise an idol to suffice for all.

Are you a noble Roman

If you put on two facades:

One: intent to kill a man

And two: to smile like frauds?

Should nobility have a guise

Flip personality, as it were

If its intents were always wise

And its laws fit to be heard?

But such is the son of men

If reason wars with his soul-

Purpose hides, pale and wan

Inflaming conscience as with coal.

For truth should not be ashamed

To show its constant face--

For always it must stay the same

To guide the human race.

The tornado of betrayal

Is the worst of all the storms

Vanishing when needed most

And feasting with the worms.

Betrayers flatter, then they cower

Because of fear that life will dim.

A faulty messenger, failing power

Controlled by moment’s whim.

For caprice is that serpent

Which to traitors always calls--

And lacking firm and steady foot

To the serpent a traitor falls.

Am I free when I am subject

To the law inside of me?

Family breaks and death hold sway

As if they were root of tree;

Grief forms into resentment

And makes wine out of me.

But on the other hand…

Am I free when I am privy

To the idols of my heart?

Though I govern other’s bodies

I will never know that art;

The art of subduing greed

So my heart it does not thwart.

I tried to free my people,

Only they had bound themselves;

And they possessed the lock and key

And had hid those on their shelves.

On the shelves of their mind

Lies a loyalty to state that’s true;

But they prefer to surf on emotions

And use wealth as their glue.

They fed the ghost of Caesar

Recalling how of war, he’d made an art;

But his hand lay heavily

On the deception in my heart.

I tried to free my people,

Only they had bound themselves;

And overwhelmed by defeat

I set fire to my shelves.