Ark of the Lost Angels

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix

Inspired by Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida”

My father’s father was the breaker of chains,
Gave the people their rightful claims to the domain.
Champion of hearts and minds,
He crafted laws of logic,
Not decrees by the crown.
Ambition spilled his blood
Courtesy of those with greater ambition
Than another claiming his title.

My father drew lines in blood, 
The bulwark to safeguard the throne.
He reminded the people of their place,
Fearful his blood would be spilled
The very way his father’s was.
And I was too weak to him,
Unworthy to teach.
Power he refused to let go
Was taken from him
By the only enemy he could never fight.

And I was reared the child of two extremes,
The last in the line of leaders called “the Great”
Yet all I wanted to be was good.
A good father, a good husband, a good shepherd of my people.
What more could a man ask for?
A loving and dutiful wife,
Four daughters raised well,
And a son too frail to experience life.
How could I ever have hoped to teach him
When I knew not how to sit the throne myself?
“You can do no wrong!” they claimed,
“You’re chosen by the almighty!”
All I received was unwavering support
When all I wanted was answers to my uncertainty.
There shall be no absolution for my shortcomings, 
Revolutions and divine rights seldom go hand in hand.