Trajan and the Last Days of Rome

Trajan built on Roman roads
And gave a secret to the world
A testament to new ideals
And watched an empire unfurl

Aye, and burn; with passion and art
For ever heart and soul in Rome knew well
That ghouls and men share this in part:
They know the roads that lead to hell

And Trajan’s Forum was the last,
And so the last has come to bear;
A harvester to reap, at last,
What grows beneath the leaves so faire

The day is coming, and now has come
When all who, in their graves, will hear
That grace hath not abandoned you
Not grace forsake the one so near

A time has come, indeed a time
When every poet meetes his rhyme
And every pauper heats in line
And every tongue distills what’s mine

Look up, look up! The sky is clear
Let none distract from what is near
No cloud confuses, nor trifle diffuses
Whatever the letter the deity uses

At times it was Adam, in others a donkey;
A key to the Truth, and a mystery of youth
One moment the stillness, in others the storm
In some but a whisper, in others the horn