The Fall of Rome
The modern visigoths are wandering
Among the ruins and the monuments
They did not, and could never hope to build,
Oblivious of what has been before,
And contemptuous of what they now possess;
Caring only for what entertains,
The bread and circuses which pacify
Their ever-present gnawing appetites;
Speaking stridently of their conceits
As if revealing knowledge from the well,
And all their childish tantrums justified;
Angered that their visions have all failed;
All their utopic fantasies undone;
Looking angrily at those they blame
For the results of their own fecklessness.
Now, as they occupy the marketplace,
Demanding treasures that they have not earned,
They create nothing but their own refuse;
A generation with no legacy;
A people who have squandered their birthright
And passed from freedom to dependency,
And onward to oblivion in the end.
Among the ruins and the monuments
They did not, and could never hope to build,
Oblivious of what has been before,
And contemptuous of what they now possess;
Caring only for what entertains,
The bread and circuses which pacify
Their ever-present gnawing appetites;
Speaking stridently of their conceits
As if revealing knowledge from the well,
And all their childish tantrums justified;
Angered that their visions have all failed;
All their utopic fantasies undone;
Looking angrily at those they blame
For the results of their own fecklessness.
Now, as they occupy the marketplace,
Demanding treasures that they have not earned,
They create nothing but their own refuse;
A generation with no legacy;
A people who have squandered their birthright
And passed from freedom to dependency,
And onward to oblivion in the end.