Poetry: Nebuchadnezzar-2007

let there be
an enchanting garden
the great emperor
points his almighty finger-
a hanging garden,
unreal but true
a lake with swans.
those hanging gardens
of Nebuchadnezzar
almost forgotten,
with dust over time
now a living fossil,
long gone
the birds and the trees..
for hundreds of years
tear-flow of Tigris, Euphrates,
took comfort
from the salted sea
dead sand, merciless
yet hot
a remnant of love and pain,
labor and mistakes.
well below, beneath the sand
there flows a bloody river.
cold, black and mindless
under the sky
arrogance collides
with greed and power
our humanity
compassion and love
bow to those wishes
in the kingdom of
impossible hanging garden
a drama unfolds
mocks the civilization
of the twenty first century.