Evicted From Their Homes

Evicted From Their Homes
© Surazeus
2026 09 23

After he climbs down from Mount Helicon, 
still clutching broken lyre of honesty, 
Devus crawls through back window of his house 
and lies on soft grammar of loyalty 
to calculate the flow of capital 
that might dissolve chemical bonds of oaths. 

Eager to map out rival charts of value 
to inherited forms of thought control, 
Devus weaves lines of credit from despair, 
which renders unbearable flash of being 
light as wingless ghosts tangled in oak limbs 
whose cries shock him awake just at midnight. 

Almost shocked awake from delirium 
at time-tangled arrogance of regret, 
Devus leaps from frenzy of mocking jest 
in darker fields of imperial concern 
for imposing amazement of comedy 
on various cultures infesting the world. 

Trapped by Pax Americana through greed 
to build towers of glass on rainless moons, 
Devus looks back down at our lonely globe 
where faceless people hunger for new hope, 
dominated by capital compromise 
to live in gardens of rubbish from games. 

Clutching fragments of war atrocities, 
decontextualized by the evening news, 
Devus visits pastures of wounded souls 
where refugees, evicted from their homes, 
search for sacred books lost in empty tombs 
to paint churches white with national pride. 

Tricked by bland concealment of uniforms 
to accommodate unvoiced victimhood, 
Devus prepares bread and wine for the ghost 
who screams with smoke of rage that he is king, 
but no one notes his bond of care annulled 
by sentimental laughter of the dead. 

Through bodies dismembered by heartless laws 
as ten commandments of the Fire-Cloud Ghost, 
Devus channels souls of the suffering 
through television shows on the dream screen 
that people watch before they go to bed 
so they can conquer the world before dawn. 

Because he now has nothing to his name 
as claim to fame in anthem of our land, 
Devus scatters credit cards on town squares 
where millions of people stare at war tanks 
that crush idols of their gods to smithereens, 
then they laugh and become stuffed animals.