69. The Fall of Rome

Then it was back to the fall.

Constantine’s sacred stitches

Weren’t enough.

Civil Wars came back

Emperors throw away Constantine’s work.

Rome once again fell ill

Her dress split at the seams.

The moths came back

To feast on her material.

Barbarians sacked the city.

The Huns,

The Visigoths,

The Franks,

Lombards,

Angles,

Saxons,

Celts,

Ostrogoths,

All wanting a little piece of the once proud lady named Rome.

She screamed

She burned

No one could do anything to save her.

The great empire shattered.

Rome collapsed on her hilly throne

Her blood spilled in the streets

As the Ostrogoth king took her crown

Claiming it as his own.

68. Constantine and the New Hope

Rome’s dress was in tatters.

Her once beautiful face emaciated

With hunger and strife.

The emperors treated her terribly

As they lavished her with gold and jewelry.

A warrior arose to save her.

Exchanging metal chest plate

For the robes of an emperor.

He had a new vision for her

Coming from the battlefield.

“Conquer by this”

Said the voice of the crossed sun

At the Milvian Bridge.

What once was persecuted was exalted and things went well.

He picked the sickly Rome up,

Flushed the moths away and sewed her dress back together.

Adorning the empire with her new symbols

He gathered men

To write a book

Uniting Jew and Christian

Through story and tradition.

On his deathbed

He was welcomed into the new religion

With water.