Almost Like the Qing Dynasty

The empire is in decay. The emperor himself is spoiled, stupid,
Possibly insane. The palace harbors untold hordes of courtiers,
Each one of whom has learned to traffic in cliches. The roads
Are full of holes and bridges fall, and subjects, growing poorer,
Kill themselves with opium, but there's no money left to try
Heal them, or to fix the roads. The treasury contains no gold.
Instead, it's full of IOUs, the money borrowed used to pay
For never-ending, pointless wars. A fed-up world waits
To watch our splendid edifice collapse, brought down
On the ones who were too busy and too ignorant
To realize that, when it falls, it's going to bury them.



Poetry by Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 62 times
Written on 2017-08-09 at 16:14

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