Men of the Polis

Behold insight, δαίμον of illusion
Rummaging the ruins of Athens scorched
Harried by Phoibos, manacled by Lysander
See him lying in wait
Like tripwire across a blasted heath
Scorched by engines of war
Into the minds of men he plunged

And took root like cancer
Opening black gulfs
Wherein lurk’d vicious chimeras
Sphinxes, and homunculi
Now loosed upon the world
Across a millennium it spanned
Sickly empire nocturne
Only once stamped like weeds
That pierce ruined masonry:
For down came bearded northmen
Savage drinkers of milk
But coasts are not for want of feeble men enrobed
So for centuries he lurked
Fondling bearded men of arid destiny
And soon came a dumb ox
Carting poison in tow
Not the last, nor the gravest heretic

Tarry no longer
Forget these vain men of the polis
Soon to be consumed like arid stalks of grass
For naught escapes Macht, vast κρατορία
Forces of stellar magnitude, fires unquenchable