PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

[Acknowledgement to Zeph Zuilderzee who prose translation

appears in Hazel Carlisle's monograph, "Statius:  Gracious,

Vivacious, And Spacious"]

Poets who write of our society---

scholars who write about our history---

will have to hold their noses for the stink

arising from the dark chicanery

that tells us we do not, now, need to think.

Domitian will do all the thinking for us,

and that means he will prostitute and whore us.

Although the Senate legally elected

him (but some admit, now, how reluctantly),

he is amoral and should be rejected

without the least of human sympathy.

If he has one, his is a twisted soul

He will promptly abolish our free speech,

but use more bread and circuses to reach

the people---drawing them to more control.

I write this in the depth of secrecy,

and pray to whatever powers may be

moved by our ghastly plight . . . to set us free.

For none of us are safe, not in our homes,

nor in the territories that are Rome's.

Worse than eccentric, more evil than odd,

That Man insists we call him Lord and God.

We need a swift and sudden miracle.

I plead this with the utmost urgency.

Starward

[jlc]