Which stood for decades like a giant keep
Yet crumbled like limestone against our righteous onslaught.
From the tumbling walls poured hordes of rats
Nipping at our ankles as the fled.
But concealed in the scurrying throng were occasional vipers
Whose filthy fangs found home.
We looked for the evil king
And his arms of Armageddon
But we caught a naughty jester hiding in a hole
And they hanged him instead.
We plodded homeward a decade later
With our weapons of mass destruction
"Righteous" weapons of mass destruction
And left life and limb behind
In the saturated sand.
The duly-appointed, democratically-elected
Members of this new order
Raised their hands in a farewell salute.
Was it a mirage as
The impregnable walls, this time really made of granite
The towering spires glittering in the sunlight
The bulging cupolas brazenly flashing their gilded splendor
Suddenly seemed to change.
With a final glance we noticed
That this newly-built bastion of freedom
Swayed in the deathly desert stillness
Like a house of cards.
Copyright January 5, 2012 by Allan M. Heller
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