The Romans

Fought, Conquered, Built

Engineered, Strove

A blend of enlightenment

and ruthlessness

they read papyrus books

Codices

furnished lavish Libraries

emulating the Egyptians

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crisscrossing Europe with roads, aqueducts

and Arenas

they Ruled and Conquered

until they no longer did

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the lengthy decline

immeasurable in real time

a steady collapse

such a cake

insufficiently leavened

cautiously sits instead of standing

from one generation to another

incrementally slipping

catching itself

then slipping a bit more

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the Undoing of Civilization

culture, knowledge –

Worms yes, Invasions, Fire indeed

Time, certainly,

but more than that, Ignorance

engendering more Ignorance

until no one reads

except a handful in charge

No more principles of Life

only principles of Fear –

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From illiteracy and terror

a darkness hovered for millennia:

the earth once round

was now flat, the sun

as center spurned

human Parthenogenesis

a fact

the importance of clean water, forgotten

questioning forbidden,

any attempt at dissolving dimness,

viciously repressed

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Until ever so slowly,

we Progressed Back

to the Humanities

 salvaging ancient manuscripts

repossessing reading, examination, discussion

simultaneously galvanized by

and galvanizing the Printing Press

Empowering Minds

at once Philosophical and Mathematical

Exposing a World

of Objective Reality

no more the realms of revelation

rather the laws of physics

no longer the punishing guilt and suffering

of an immaterial god

but cause and effect

of a Beautiful Sentient Universe

made of atoms, void

magnetic fields

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and nothing else

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