The emperor has no clothes,

throwing rocks from his glass house.

Atop his ivory towers,

watching each quiet church mouse.

Oppressing the subjects with his greedy dictates

of self-serving proclamations for power.

Thieving slight of hand from behind his holy veil;

sanctimonious stench, sheep-skinned wolf, thorny dying flower.

The royal lighthouse goes dim,

but the patriarch says it’s getting brighter.

The masses blindly surrender faith to his word,

and his comforting grip grows ever tighter.

Paper monarchs presiding over a house of cards,

building little kingdoms around big egos,

perpetrating ignorance with their scholarly wisdom.

Drunk on power unchecked by any veto.

One voice cries out,

“All is not as it should be,

all is not as it seems.

Man is meant to live free!”

 

Who is this lowly peon

daring to question the kingdoms?

Such independence isn’t acceptable

with foolish notions of individual freedoms.

Ordained of god and for the greater good,

we stand on what is absolutely right.

There is no room for heretics and dissent,

irreverent to trust in one’s own guiding light.

 

The authorities in power may not be questioned.

You must dispense with speaking as you feel.

Suppress that rebellious spirit.

We shall teach you what is real.

But the lonely voice exclaims again,

“I must satisfy my own mind.

The integrity of truth is my highest calling.

And this is what I must find.”

But the aristocracy casts out the traitor,

damned his darkness and confusion.

We shall bare witness to the judgments for his candor,

holding to our grandiose illusions.

The eccentric heretic wanders away

from the tall cities of pure light,

down a lonely deserted path

into eerily irresistible darkness of night.

It is here the outcast sees a truth

the city of lights hid in its’ splendor.

The inquisitive mind is drawn to the dark

where curiosity may yield hidden treasures.

You see, when the lights are so bright

and all the answers come too easy,

where the city walls keep out the dark and taboo

and all the king’s robots bid to his pleasing…

The darkness without is shrouded with mystery and fear

as discouragement and coercion drive ponderings from the mind.

The rest of life’s experiences remain undiscovered,

unless you’re a maverick, willing to face what you may find.

By: Anne Kapp