Domus Aurea

Walls and Palaces

By: Charles Giuliano - Jan 27, 2017

Domus Aurea

Emperors
Intimidate and rule
Through spectacle
Erecting walls
Buildings palaces
Jobs, jobs, jobs
Rampant paranoia
Keeping out
Barbarians, Mexicans, Muslims
Hadrian’s feared Scots
Trump’s folly
Make them pay
Rapists and murderers
Islamic terrorists
Blowing up
Statue of Liberty
Mockery made of
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
Sad, he says, so sad
Decadent palaces
Lavish entertainment
Holding court
Domus Aurea
Nero’s Golden House
Heart of Rome
Some 200 acres
After great fire 64 AD
300 room palace
Marble and gold
Mosaic and fresco
Man-made lake
Public parks
Fragrant gardens
Imperial strategy
Feasts with favorites
Trump Tower
Tacky taste
Midas touch
Golden drapes
In Oval Office
Like Vegas
Mar y Lago
Private club
Presidential retreat
Seat of power
Making the empire
Great again
Forty years after
Nero’s suicide
Palace abandoned
An embarrasment
Monument to oppression
Rooms filled in
Lake drained
Over it built
Flavian Amphiteatre
Nero’s 120’ bronze
Colossus
Dragged there by
Teams of elephants
Renamed Coliseum
Where gladiators
You and me
Perceived traitors
Nos morituri
Defiantly proclaim
Like Sparacus
Screw you