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At The Forum In Rome
You think? And why did we spare no expense
to transport, try, imprison and dispatch
an old, and obviously addled, Jew?
What in the world is Rome now coming to?
Or, if this is a joke, what is the catch?
Admittedly, I have been long away
among the provinces. And I dare say,
without fear, that our absent emperor
(who came to rule with small experience;
nor, since that time, gained much in common sense)
appointed stupids to judge in his stead.
Full escort, with an executioner,
took Paul, that fool, out, and lopped of his head . . .
because he thought some other man, once dead,
had risen from the grave, though crucified?
Who do you know alive now that once died?
The ancient tombs can easily disprove
the whole, unfounded hope of resurrection.
Paul's lawyers should have taken that direction.
Conviction, and cost, could have been removed;
the prisoner (both unwell and elderly)
should have been restored to liberty,
a Roman citizen entirely free
to dream of his pathetic fantasy---
until that dark and dismal moment when
Death should have come for him as for all men.
Starward
