Athens was once a shining city on a hill, home to Pericles, Aeschylus, and Socrates. The Parthenon was the marvel of the age.  But Athens is no more. The Greek tragedy continues. The socialist dream, a united Europe, a common currency, is in its death throes, and Athens is ablaze, as austerity strikes deep into the heart of a society that retired at fifty on extravagant pensions, on vastly overpaid and over benefitted government workers, and on all who relied on the socialist welfare state to sustain them. Athens is no longer a shining city on the Acropolis, but a burning city on a garbage pile.

Prosperity to poverty

Is but a tiny jump

The city on a hill is now

The city on a dump