Jigsawed together, re-arranged in rows,
millenia faded military pose,
unblinking stares ignore the tourist gaze
and stony faces censure foreign ways
Famous from photos and the strange idea
of burying soldiers in a grave
as bodyguards against some royal fear
that ghostly subjects might not quite behave,
these charioteers and archers, cavalry
with horses, officers and infantry
were made to boost the ego of one man
regardless of the cost of his vain plan.
Presumably he thought himself too rich
and powerful by far to actually die.
Could someone so important not just switch
his empire to that afterlife on high ?
Just like the pharaohs in another land
with pyramid squat toads upon the sand,
because he can't imagine being dead,
he thinks he must be somewhere else instead.
But thieves who later broke into the vault
to steal real weapons from toy soldiers' hands
despised his guardians that never fought
and smashed his dolls ! In the museum stands
a likeness of that ancient emperor.
I didn't want to see his face or name
as worth no more than any warrior
accorded anonymity not fame.
It's unjust peasants endure poverty
to further monumental vanity;
unfortunate as well that art should need
patronage from colossal greed.
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