Warnings of the Ruins

Ernest Williamson, III
Ph.D. candidate in Higher Education
Seton Hall University
E-mail: williaea@shu.edu

there was no common era
Hammurabi was a canister for nucleic waste
a somber balm wading in saltwater
amid
schools of flourishing jazz
oozing from convulsing walls
in gray fedoras
tilted toward Harlem's Apollo
as the ghosts of Hathaway and Coltrane
reach with rancor for diamond grammys
blazing in hot soot
there was no comma era
and there is no cathedral
nor music
nor memories lifted in incantations
of the God of the Benedictines
because we have shattered the true money
the grail has been prostituted and placed
in the hands
of decent
children
who have questions of substance
great baby talk
mistakenly considered
to be language
of peace
but in reality the babes scold the broken plates
of the meaning behind Old Glory's sway
as the sulfuric acid rains from the ground to the sky
unto the vestibules of diadems
candid and wry
dry and die
though we still have time
to belabor
the why

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