The Tower

The city was laid like a wasteland

Like a rusting, crumbling sore,

Half of the houses were boarded up

Along a neglected shore,

The spirit had long gone out of it

That had made the city great,

Men fifty miles to the south of it

Were determining its fate.

 

Way up on the Presidential floor

Was a group of greedy men,

The czars of the old industrial core

Who had bled the town back then,

‘The real estate’s a disaster,’ said

A man who had been the Mayor,

‘The auto plants are a rusting heap,’

Said the man who held the Chair.

 

‘We’ve got more pensioners on the funds

Than workers in the plants,

There’s crime and violence in every street

And the Unions make demands.

So what’s the conclusion, gentlemen,

Do we give this plan its head?’

‘Whatever we do, it’s much too late,

The city’s as good as dead!’

 

And that’s how they came to build ‘The Tower’

To illuminate the sky,

‘There’s plenty of work for everyone

At a hundred storeys high!’

Nobody knew just what it did

Or what they were building for,

They only knew that they had a wage,

Could hold up their heads once more.

 

A central lift in The Tower went up

And down ten times a day,

Taking tools and materials

To restrict the Tower’s sway,

‘They say we’re going to go High-Tech

And they’re closing down the Plants,

The days of auto’s have gone for good

But they won’t tell us their plans.’

 

The Tower was built within the year

With a gaping hole up top,

A semi drove through the streets one day

And by The Tower, it stopped.

It carried a massive box-like thing

With a mass of flashing lights,

Was loaded into the lift, and sent

Up on its maiden flight.

 

They took it up and it crowned The Tower

While the people watched in awe,

There hadn’t been people in the streets

Like this since the Second War.

A massive counter was counting down

As the people stood and cheered,

‘I hope it’s not what I think it is,’

Said a man with a long, white beard.

 

While down in the Presidential Suite

Just fifty miles away,

A group of men put their sunnies on

And stood by the window bay,

‘Well how do you clear a festering slum,’

Said one, as he watched the clock,

While back at The Tower a sign lit up

And the word was ‘Ragnarok!’

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Karma has a name, and her name isn't pretty for those intent upon destruction. These god-men who lift themselves on high, who plan the ruin of others, are bound to reap what they sow. Unfortunately, this is so representative of today's society, which is lazy at best and too comfortable with complacency.

When a populace willingly abdicates personal responsibility in favor of government handouts, it's inevitable that the feeding tube will be cut off. When that happens, all that's left are the politically elite and the bottom feeders. The middle class is destroyed in the middle of this war between rich and poor, unwilling pawns in a game they didn't plan.

I know this isn't the original inspiration behind the poem, but I can't help but apply it to what's happening in our world today.

[Angel]

Wasn't it Ben Franklin who said that those who are willing to give up their liberty to purchase security, deserve neither liberty nor security? Or something like that...
And isn't that exactly what we do...give up our liberty to purchase security? No surprise, then, when we wind up with neither...
Magnificent story.

[Mark]

There's phrasing within our own Declaration of Independence--which apparently
none of our Legislators has read in a while--stating the objectives of a good Gov-
ernment, and what the people must do "...when such Government becomes abusive
of those ends..." But 'We, the Sheeple' have largely forgotten what our rights AND
their responsibilities are, allowing them to dictate our futures in ways that we would
not prefer. This is a good example of Big Government filling a short-term need by
enacting an insidious agenda; could'n'a said it better, my friend...Although admittedly,
I though you were headed toward "Babel, Mark II" right up to the very end!

[Marie]

So the Norse legend comes to pass...

[BlackRose]

Superb as always. As it is, it's the inevitable, the government tries to take over. And we just lose more of our freedoms and rights.