Faceless Ghosts Of Vanity

Faceless Ghosts Of Vanity
© Surazeus
2026 08 22

With elegant grace of artistic faith 
I stroll awed along labyrinthine streets 
over sculptured bridge of the timeless river 
in majestic city of golden light 
where sun-bleached marble temples crown high hills 
as silent sentinels of grand events. 

On time-worn cobblestones of urgent care, 
where centuries of footsteps echo soft, 
I wander slow past weathered stone facades 
encrusted with dust of eras long past, 
to explore crumbling palaces of pride 
where spirits of antiquity watch me. 

Beneath palimpsest of history I read 
tales of many generations concealed 
in monumental plays of fortitude, 
performed by long-forgotten dynasties 
in chronicles of sorrow etched in stone 
by endless wind of change that knows my name. 

Anchored in bedrock of brave principles 
on foundation fused in soil of desire, 
this sprawling palace of some tyrant king 
arrests the natural landscape with contempt, 
now heavy with unspeakable despair 
that still asserts authority of death. 

Despite bombastic arrogance of time 
that crushes dynasties of kings to dust, 
I stroll with ostentatious obviousness 
that my genetic coils of spirit grief 
unravel from flesh of those royal fools 
who crowned themselves great rulers over fate. 

Awake this prayerless hour of vivid hope 
in open-air archive of human triumph, 
that pulses still beneath ruins of fate, 
I explore grand monument of endurance, 
that looms proud against erosion of time, 
at veil worn thin between me and the past. 

These standard feelings of the long-gone past, 
that shimmers in sunrays on feet-worn streets, 
stir in hearts of every human being 
who visits ancient cities of the world, 
so I must laugh that my heart feels them too, 
though I wear mask of innocent respect. 

Trapped by nostalgia for time-unspooled past, 
I photograph with eye-phone of my heart 
myself before grand monuments to pride 
where men who played god on stage of this city 
are now but faceless ghosts of vanity 
whose selfish commands whisper in the breeze.