The Romans
Fought, Conquered, Built
Engineered, Strove
A blend of enlightenment
and ruthlessness
they read papyrus books
Codices
furnished lavish Libraries
emulating the Egyptians
*
crisscrossing Europe with roads, aqueducts
and Arenas
they Ruled and Conquered
until they no longer did
*
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
*
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 –
*
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
*
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
*
and nothing else
*
