Ruins of Baghdad

Canto 1

In nebuchadnezzar's palace.
i saw men with painted faces
and women with painted ears
moving about in concentric circles
dancing in a dizzying fashion
with masks
masquerading as princes and queens
as cannons fired in the distance ...

it was new year's eve
and a kingdom was falling
but it was not
the fall of Saigon
though Vietnam was recalled
and opium dens remained full
with the musk of smoke
and dirt drainpipe jeans
as the hovels were intruded
by secret red guards
hidden beneath the
beret of deceit ...

Saddam lay hung
as the hoots of derision reigned
and the streets were filled
not with the blood of martyrs
but with the blood of hate
and as a foolish 'king'
shot turkeys on Thanksgiving
another kingdom was invaded
by locusts from the desert kingdom
and men despaired
because they thought God was dead ...

but off bangkok
another kingdom was falling
as a hobgoblin squandered billions
of gold earrings in a royal barge
filled with drug peddlers and merchants of vice
all headed to Verona
to see a royal match
between a bitch and a dragon's son ...

Ho - the Great Dragon rides south from Babylon
and smokes its fiery tail into Armageddon

I lay in a trench
as bullets shot past me
and the baht dropped a bombshell
on the ides of march

Caesar was not dead yet
and Nero was riding on a winged horse called 666
the Beast was riding south for the winter
but the world was clinging onto
the coat tails of a New Year Eve's party
resplendent with purple gowns and ivory towers
gilded with gold leaf and satin curtains
as champagne was floated down
an artificial waterfall
to cover up the brilliant statistics
promising inhuman growth
during a spectacularly dull season
filled with the lies of the thief of Baghdad ...

Oh, a mountain of gold has collapsed yet again
north of the Shwe Dagon
and all the jade is gone
but the emperor still gets drunk on VSOP
and refuses to yield
his throne to the rightful heir
as sons and daughters in law
await the midnight hour
when Nebuchadnezzar is about to rise
forgetting that one must not mock the divine
as Mortal Man is apt to do
on New Year's Eve
in a drunken stupor
when all sins are revealed
to the eunuchs who connive
with their whispers
to force foolish vain kings
into making a myriad mistakes ...

Vanity they say is the death of kings
and greed the fall of foolish princes
who rise to the throne
not because of their own genius or charisma
but because of the coat tails
of penguins
in a parade square filled with drunken gods
saluting
an emperor who struts the Jade Square
without any clothes
as children gather to scream in truth
what Mortal Man do not
because of Fear ...