Persecution of Poesy
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.