“The Cry of Millions”

The cry of millions not yet heard; the righteous lights
Of all the world mirrored flaws along the walls while Versailles
Gainsaid the obvious until the glass was shattered, veils
Were rent and more than one child began to cry.
A single salvo as the Schleswig-Holstein felled all smiles,
Reduced credulity to stubs and stuffing, and some few numbers; jailed,
The jaded jailers who executed prisoners, usurped the common rails,
And ushered in the latest greatest war with ink in vials
From vats of half a century overshadowing the Titanic’s inauguration
Of festivities that did not cease until the fall of walls in Berlin.
That was then and this is now, and what’s become of change?
The wall’s rebuilt a hundred times over, with Israel and Lebanon in range
And quite within the reasoning of one or two half-generations’ pagination
In Syrian spectres and the gilded books of nothing gained and no one wins.