Athens

 

Today chipped, chiseled rocks and artifacts galore

Still flicker with the glory that flashed 2500 years before.

 

On earth’s floor, like massive bones,

Broken stones ignore their decay

And implore us to remember civilization's university.

 

Temples, literature, recorded history, and art,

Precious spokes of light, dart through the night,

From 2,500 years ago, from the white center,

From the bright, bedrock days

When to Athena Socrates prayed

And asked, “How should men live?”

 

Yesterday vibrant Greeks,

With their Acropolis-like voices,

Started an eruption, a Vesuvius,

And the world has never been the same.