It is reported that the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has died, his last words a whimpered “Please don’t let me die.” How fitting. The man who jailed and murdered his political enemies could not face the death he had ordered for so many others. He was not a very big murderer, not in the league of Stalin or Hitler or Mao, but was more of a buffoon, a lightweight tyrant by any measure. But a tyrant he was, and for a time he wore the crown of pseudo emperors and kings, and like all who before him wore a crown, in the end the crown availed him not.

The tyrant’s crown so lightly lies

Upon smooth brow and smiling eyes

It’s gleaming gold in sunlight glows

In beauty measured by the rose

And yet doth he who wears the crown

Record the days that wind him down

Until the time of one last breath

When gold will not forbid him death