Glorious Nation/s (poem)

The best.
The very best.
Better than the very best.
The greatest.
The very greatest.
Far greater than the greatest.
The most successful.
The most successful ever.
The most significant.
The most significant of all times.
Beyond imagination,
brilliant, powerful, privileged.
Never before such men and women,
and places.
All meant to endure forever.
All destroyed from within.
Remember them?
Shang’s China;
Ashoka’s India;
Rameses’ Egypt;
Augustus’ Rome;
Kublai Khan’s Mongolia;
Montezuma’s Aztek Empire;
Peter I’s Russia;
Hitler’s Third Reich;
Stalin’s Soviet Union.
Add the USA today?
Emperors, kings, and pharaohs;
presidents, prime ministers, and leaders.
Arrogant and self-absorbed;
power-hungry and mad for success.
Political hacks and maneuverers –
yes-men and sycophants –
present in every palace.

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Family greed and corporate malfeasance –
noble privilege in different editions.
Warlords, knights, and generals –
brilliants and killers by different names.
Human and natural resources
wasted for a privileged few –
slavery and poverty;
no more than collateral damage.
Religious supporters and crusaders –
the long-standing tradition never to be ignored.
Education attempted and abandoned –
access to privilege only for the few.
Nothing taught –
nothing learned.
None ever ready for the end.

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