Submitted in Triplicate

Truths of youth scorch across my scalp like crimson claws
Masters of the simple sands have filled their golden halls
When weighed against the wages of the poor and destitute
You wonder what the spirit brings to those who play the flute
Cataclysmic rhythms die upon the kingly chair
As misanthropic children cry, half-hearted in their cares
The somber host and solar ghost of leftist warriors rise
To the call of prince and Paul and priests who scream and tithe
If only those who held the rose would see their pointless role
Reductive questions of the self would fall upon the poll
The question asked by all who reign within the chamber is:
Are my servants working to their fullest?

Scholars speak of little things and hold them to the sky
Their perception is distorted and felled by simple lies
The knights encircled in the church are questioning their selves
Bishops breathe on dusty tomes and place them on the shelves
The candles lit upon the graves of stymied soldiers dead
Call to mind the present tense of all who lightly tread
Searching in the floodlight gaze of midnight’s looming queen
Are the thieves of thirsty needs who curse what they can glean
Preferring shadows clung to them instead of burning glow
The future and the past are naught to them but a chance to grow
They are novelties upon the waltz room and are asked:
Are my servants working to their fullest?

Empires crumble into dust and visions blur and twist
Prophets born to priestesses are cast upon the whips
The pleasant scent of sense is stripped and thrown upon the floor
As beggars born to beggars burst and weep forevermore
Seven separate severed heads are set and sent on platters
Soon the symbol of the times is killed and thus is splattered
On the morbid stone unturned and sitting by the tomb
The metaphysical remorse betrayed by limb and womb
Science birthed to godlessness and gods born to science
Are scheduled for routine protests and other plain defiance
And one last call echoes above the clamor of the day:
Are all servants working to their fullest?