As we promised, every month we will be posting a poem on the blog for your to read. This month is our history month, and in honor of some famous historical events we have a hisotircal poem. Enjoy this poem by Brandon Berman, published poet in our first issue. Here is a satire on King Louis XVI.
For the People I Have Lived
By Brandon Berman
The blade looms above his head
from the sunset's rays stained in red
The sound of birds fluttering about in the sky
not a cloud up in the heavens
what a beautiful day for King Louis to die!
The republic is his master
the French people want him dead
their cries for him to die faster
swim like fishes in his head
Oh, how the people he protected
now call for his demise
what had he ever done to be selected
to die in wake of the republic's rise
He had given them his army
he had given them his bread
he had fed them and watered them
like a flower in a garden bed
Yet all that care and nurture was for naught
for on the guillotine he was to end
and there his body was to rot
until the second coming heaven send
And as they march him up the creaking steps
to the guillotine’s waiting room
they are his last footsteps
and they carry him to his doom
They place his head against the rough wooden stoackade
His neck exposed to the glittering blade
for a king to die in this dark way is not right
after serving his people with all of his might
Then a single thought engrosses him as the blade nears his neck:
"Populus enim vixi: for the people I have lived"
