Michael Johnson
Liege
Drowned in ash and choked by smoke
And silence hears the measure
A deathly hymn on tattered cloths
And a city left to wither.
Ragged wings of scarlet red
And the prideful stayed their absence
Said the cries of the suffered dead
And the leader boast his status.
Crack the stone and salt the fields
And burn down the pyre.
Shattered bones on a broken throne
And the king they crowned a liar.