misreading the doom (rome)

a sound so very loud

did rome fall with quiet tears?

were romans looking at the flames
thinking of all the books that would be lost
all the statues that would be broken
all the tombs that would be forgotten

did they grieve that no one would pray to jupiter anymore 

were they trembling with the fear of being forgotten?

did rome really fall in a single day
or was it already decaying, slowly

so slowly that no one noticed

or nobody dared to say it  

pretending things were still as they used to be. 

did they believe time would let them off the hook

and as the flames reached colessium did they stop a minute to reflect

how do people go down?

wishing they lived differently?
regretting it all

or maybe dead certain
certain that they would do it all again in a heart beat

was destruction a part of the beauty?

maybe the doom itself was poetry. it was what gave it all a meaning.

as it was going down
did anyone quote homer?
maybe they thought of all the ways greek heroes died
and hoped their deaths would echo through history and pages too

when rome was burning was anyone still mourning achilles 

they could see the poetry in others' tragedies
but their own was nothing but unbearable

when heroes go down it's heroic
other times it's just a misfortune

or maybe they were still arguing about why brutus betrayed ceaser 

and where did the fault lie? 
was in the sky, already written in the stars 
or was it in ourselves? 
did they figure it out before they faded into dust

or was it with a bang
with a sound so very loud 
and they're all gone

did anyone think what a pretty sight it was
maybe some painter wished he could paint it.
only if he could stop the time, 
look into abyss that is his doom, 
and could just paint it.

then he would go too, but fulfilled.

because he painted 
what can not be held.
and what the eye can't see.

that can only be felt.

and for all the rome burned, 
even at its final moment, it shined too.

and the painter got to see the light, 
and for a moment 
he could touch it too.