Upon coronation the mandate was clear, find all the poets
Remove them from their posts, burn their works, make them ghosts
Metron was the first to be taken, his home burned to the ground,
A forced capitulation, his family, his staff were removed from town.
Each Officer of the Arts were hunted down, all their counterparts
And supports were taken to deport to the ramparts
On the outskirts of the cities. No one who made the claim
That poetry and drawing are superior forms of knowing are the same
As traitors to the Republican cause. The Rhapsodes
And bards were locked behind bars. Their episodes,
Their similes, their grandiose plots and tragic themes
Were to be shelved like volumes of books or reams
Of paper for the printers press now shattered like the tattered
Dreams of Authors with no magazines now silenced on all matters
That matter to society. Banished under the watchful eye
Of the most trusted of the Guardians who would not cry
For they are ruled by philosophy, not the tears of poetry.
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