This was a place and time of prosperity
It was no wrong to extend all equal charity
The people traded, exchanged, and played
Never thinking their age just numbered days
The city first grew within a golden wall
And though initially its towers were small
Soon kings paid homage from all around
Not even a starving beggar to be found
The people styled themselves gods of this world
Masters of fate, rulers of all powers unfurled
They bought into the crafty serpent’s lie
Forsaking the task of pushing back the tide
The ocean grew and soon broke with a crash
Even as the city drowned, it burnt to ash
Streets flooded where once was joyous milling
Civilization fell once Nature was no longer willing
To overlook the hubris of a God forsaking people
Where no more was raised the humility of steeple
These Atlanteans once thrived but now are ruined
All is left is light of unseeing, uncaring moon
That is the ancient story of Atlantis
But it was just rehearsal, recital, practice
A real and mythical prefiguring of latter day
When all are crabs, crawling over our corpse’s bay
