Exiled From Their Heavens

Exiled From Their Heavens
© Surazeus
2024 12 08

Every day I eat with you I know why 
those couples on Etruscan tombs still smile 
even after we translate ancient texts 
that list the number of cows in their fields 
and how many trees of apples they own, 
so I give you honey to show my love. 

With bootless cries to deaf clouds in the sky, 
I wander barefoot on the signless road 
to catch the thieves who hit me on the head 
and stole my wagon with barrels of fruit, 
but gate of Heaven remains closed to me, 
disgraced by Fortune who mocks my weak state. 

From sullen Earth of sorrow I still rise 
with flash of dawnless hope in my cold heart 
to wait all day outside the crowded court 
where Justice judges cases till sunset, 
so I decide instead of cruel revenge 
I will harvest wheat from my broken heart. 

Lost in dark forest of terrible wealth, 
I twirl sling of David to hurl the rock 
of cruel sincerity, which kills the ghoul 
whose cavern is filled with jewels and bones, 
so I gather treasures of their lost hopes 
and sell them to housewives outside the gate. 

Grasping the serpent just below its jaws 
with sharp teeth gleaming with poisonous faith, 
I dance around clay tablet soaked with blood 
that details deed of family ownership 
how my grandfather bought land by the lake, 
now claimed by third son of the minister. 

In every prosperous age of every empire 
greedy men exercise official power 
to steal fertile land from hard-working farmers, 
or claim orchards of fruit trees as their own, 
leaving helpless men exiled from their heavens 
they had created with their honest hands. 

Though blind-folded to objectively rule 
in favor of the honest righteous man, 
Justice just as often fails to correct 
cases where the wealthy steal from the poor 
because our social system judges them 
more worthy to control the fertile land. 

When social systems function properly 
men motivated by Justice and right 
work as police and lawyers to right wrongs, 
but when the system favors the rich first 
we rise in revolution against greed 
and follow Liberty to fight the power.