The Senate

we came begging

to the hall

built by slaves

of founders

to convert

wisdom to law

but it

was vacant

the senators

dining on flesh

with the emperor

the storied body hollow

deliberating on nothing

like some cavernous skull

brain gone

eye sockets staring

vacant at the world

tongue devoured

to dust by maggots

soul long deported

no eloquent speeches

about freedom

not even portraits

of the masters hung

on the walls just

a few dusty red hats

on a dirty floor

and torn pages

of bills with the s

of the serpent and

crumbs

of concrete from

the ceiling and bits

of the last of the

graham crackers

fed to hungry masses

our pleas

to the once

honorable men

to save the nation

echoed off the bone dome

and fell unanswered

upon our trembling backs

we knew then

we were alone

with fear

and the weight

of momentous

tasks before us

the swollen kleptocracy

the coffers

the weapons

of war of the

once great republic

the armies the spies

the scales

of justice all

at the command

of the orange menace

and everywhere

the seductive

odor of rewriting

and forgetting