Momentarily I am frozen in time

 

Again I am a witness to all that has happened

 

 

Soon I am enveloped by the sound of countless voices

 

A cacophony of voices fills the heavens

 

Coming from those who fill the coliseum of Colossus

 

Rabble such as those who filled the coliseum in Rome

 

Screaming

 

 

They chant

 

That the damned be given up to Madam Lafarge

 

 

Upon a Daiz

 

The thirteen sit

 

Six to either side

 

Except for tears impassive

 

As they listen

 

To the history of man’s inequity to man

 

 

Scribes have come from all points of the compass

 

From Egypt, the Holy Land, Greece, Rome, Europe.

 

The Andes, The Middle Kingdom and more

 

All to tell their story

 

And me with heavy heart from America

 

To tell mine

 

All to settle accounts

 

To speak of the future

 

If it exists

 

 

The thirteen shall listen, question and then decide

 

 

As I wait my turn, I think

 

There can be no lying, or excuses for what has happened

 

All played a part

 

Nothing can be hidden from the mirror of life

 

 

Again I am transfixed in time

 

History plays out again

 

It seems that we never learn

 

 

In the new land the immigrants can offer up thanks and begin anew

 

 

My story begins with the Covent

 

Written by men and blessed by their maker

 

Where all were created equal

 

Tho many were not

 

It would offer opportunity to all

 

But only in proportion to their efforts

 

Fair judgment would be bestowed upon all

 

Their acts would be there for all to see

 

A system of checks and balances was created

 

So that one could not overwhelm the other

 

 

I glanced at the mirror again

 

As I did, I see the beginnings of shadows

 

The worshipers of Mammon and Greed

 

 

The perversity and mendacity of the Law Makers

 

Who suggested a new System

 

 A house of cards built upon sand

 

To benefit a few

 

Rather than the people    

 

Who were their Electors

 

 

The people became hostile towards one another

 

War brought brother against brother

 

Nothing was settled

 

A hundred years passed

 

Before the least could no longer be denied the rights

 

Possessed by the majority

 

Yet so many squandered the opportunity

 

To be assimilated

 

To be forged anew

 

As they are poured from the melting pot of humanity

 

 

The money changers were at work

 

Distorting the truth

 

Creating wealth for few

 

Their transgressions would be put upon the shoulders

 

Of the masses and their seed

 

 

The once free were becoming slaves to those who provide their bread

 

 

The emperor and his court all wearing theatrical masks promised a

 

New Order if you would anoint them with the mantle of leadership

 

But all too soon many learned that freedom was to be abrogated

 

Assets were to be expropriated

 

Those that would question were labeled unstable, terrorists, uninformed

 

Not progressive

 

 

Change was promised and promised

 

The words were hollow rhetoric

 

There was no passion

 

To help

 

The poor, the homeless

 

The victims of nature’s disasters

 

They who had lost hope

 

All waiting for the changes that never came


The Emperor and his consorts told the people that everything


Was getting better


Yet, those that could see


Saw, that there was not a crust of bread upon the table


For many, except for a cloak of nothingness

 

The Emperor is naked for all to see


Wars were fought


Mountains of wealth were dispensed


But to what avail


As I look in the mirror I see a ragged trio


One carrying a tattered standard


One with a drum and the other a fife


Is there a chance that there is still a spark


Then in the mirror I see France and it is 1793


A voice in the coliseum bellows


Who is Mme. Lafarge?


Another voice answers


She is La Guillotine



Now it is my turn


I am asked


What is your name?


I reply


Maximilien Robes…….


I pause and quietly petition


Maker of all, they have forsaken you


Give them another chance so that all


Will come to your table