Blachernae

[cordilleran2]

I have watched Kings and Emperors
rise and fall like wheat
before the sun in spring
and the scythe in autumn,
and martyrs fall like
cold iron in winter,
their bodies burned on pyres
and their ashes mixed
with blood and ash.

I have watched cities
burn to the ground four times;
ashes, wine, and rubble mixed with
the tears of the innocent I protect.
Twice I witnessed the death of empires;
once from outside, decapitated;
and once from the inside,
rotted away from infection.

I have been paraded on walls
like trophies invincible
before invading hordes
from beyond the horizons
and then quietly hidden away in
monasteries in coves by the sea
where monks stared into my eyes
to seek the infinate cosmos;
the wisdom that is from the image
from which I was forged
in the likeness of the God-Bearer
before being given away again
as a gift befitting a king.

It's different, these days.
It is quiet now; nobody asks me
for much of anything anymore.
Now I sit quietly away
from the ravages of time
in an art museum; ignored,
forgotten, gathering dust,
occasionally being pointed at.
It's strange, to be almost forgotten...
at least for the time being.