JULY 2004

.'Constance Defiled'
(an allegory on the U.S. Constitution)
- by Ian Reed -



Not that she was a virgin; by no means.... Often her guardians,
The imperial family, holding her honor cheap, sold her
As a sex slave in the palace orgies, and even mounted her
Themselves from time to time, when mere immorality
Became boring and incest a new form of diversion. Yet never
In all her days, though many were the scoundrels raised
To prominence by unmerited privilege, did any stoop to rape,
Until a new emperor -- son of an emperor, but ten times the devil
His father was, one who murdered to wear the the imperial mantle,
A reincarnate Caligula bearing a yellow rose nestled inside
His womanish bosom -- did so, or rather -- too little in strength
Himself to fashion the dreadful act his mind conceived, no
Not even the wherewithal of his feeblest ancient Eunuch --
Ordered his palace guard, the Praetorian element
To take her against her will, and not merely undermine her
But strip her, torture her, humiliate her. The race of lawyers,
Hirelings told him his was the authority to set aside the law.
They said it was "inherent in his office".[1] So crying Terror!
The soldiers ravished her, not once, not twice, but over and over,
While the populace, hearing she was a harlot -- so they were told
And so they believed -- cheered on and echoed Terror! Terror!
Apart from a dissenting remnant, but their voices were not heard
Amid the uproar of official messengers, papers of record,
Hirelings doing the bidding of the five-sided ministry,
As the delicate prince,[2] determined to destroy, let slip the terriers
Of war his opiate, his troops of Tereuses,[3] to cut down the flower
Of manhood and deflower the princesses of ancient Persia,
The dark-skinned beauties as beloved of wisest Solomon,
Scented with saffron, frankincense and myrrh, perfumes of Arabia,
To stain with sweat and stench and tear their tender maidenhoods.
No less a spoil of war herself, back in the palace Constance wept,
Cursing the day of her birth when founder Franklin fathered her
And that once glorious and auspicious dawn, when to a brave
New world, he brought her blushing, an imperfect but belovèd
Bride, to the adoration of a nascent nation, but even that, once
A collective memory would be forgotten, for the emperor found
The fragments of frail truth yet surviving to posterity, to be
An inconvenient fiction, so replaced History with orthodoxy,
Learning with patriotism, in word and deed and cultish creed
So should the peoples think and feel as he decreed,
And few there were in Constance' hour of need.

[1]      a Pentagon report obtained by the Wall Street Journal concludes the
authority to set aside laws was "inherent in the president" (see
www.democracynow.org - June 8, 2004 - 'Bush Administration Ruled it Could
Ignore Torture Laws'

[2]      see William Shakespeare, 'Hamlet', III.vii.50-56: "Witness this
army of such mass and charge,/ Led by a delicate and tender prince,/ Whose
spirit with divine ambition puffed/ Makes mouths at the invisible event,/
Exposing what is mortal and unsure/ To all that fortune, death and danger
dare,/ Even for an eggshell."

[3]      In Greek mythology, Tereus, king of Thrace, raped his wife's sister
(Philomela) then cut out her tongue so that she could not inform against
him."

Ian Reed©June 2004
'Poetic Injustice' - a collection of poems about the
U.S. invasion of Iraq, is at:
http://www.ReedandWrite.com