What is to do in Micklegard
upon this holy day?
The lilac, rose, and spikenard
are spread along the way
Where walks the good Justinian
in Circumstance and State,
With Patriarch, with minion,
with slave and magistrate.
What is to do in Micklegard
that draws so great a throng?
The high, the lowly – none is barred,
but push and press headlong
Towards the Church of Wisdom, where
they stand in hush and awe,
To see our noble Caesar there
condemn a base scofflaw!
What is to do in Micklegard –
are kings becoming reeves?
Here in Sophia’s wide foreyard
the Emperor reprieves
Or sends to death the malcontent,
according to the Code
He made, with Senators’ consent,
by aleph, beth, and yod!
What is to do in Micklegard –
is Caesar now a Jew?
The Laws of Moses may strike hard,
but they were just and true,
As were the Medes’, the Persians’, and
as are the laws of Rūm
Now – by the Saviour’s wounded hand –
here in Byzantium.
What is to do in Micklegard,
and what is it to me?
The Code is just, and will retard
the surge of anarchy.
It reaches all, it touches all
and, though our lifetimes pass,
Still decadence will meet a wall –
the fortress of Byzas!
Good readers, lives indeed have sped;
Justinian likewise
Is biered and crypted with the dead,
and sightless are his eyes!
But laws are made and laws persist
for every clan and race –
You set your lip, you shake your fist? –
they keep you in your place!
Gold trophy winner
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