The world is changing: Europe and the Middle East are going down, China, India and the rest of southeast Asia are going up. The scales are always moving. As one side goes up, the other goes down. Carthage, the premier economic and military power of the western Mediterranean, was at the height of its power at about the time Romulus and Remus began suckling at the teat of the wolf. And so it goes.

 

 

The laden ships, the Inland Sea

Mighty Baal, thy kingdom be

Bestride the world, thy ships for hire

Adventurers who left old Tyre

To start anew in western lands

And carve a city with bare hands

And now you call the west your home

Still knowing not the infant Rome

The Punic language spoke by all

The Latin still an infant’s squall

And yet the scales were trembling now

The Carthage gods with troubled brow

For they foresaw the future clear

The death of Carthage drawing near

The universe is never still

Who climbs the mountain, crests the hill

Will find that on the other side

The slope is steeper, and the ride

From top to bottom’s but a blink

No time to act, no time to think

And so it is with tide and time

The world doth speak, and speak in rhyme

To tell of others who before

Laid up their riches, filled their store

With goods and gold and heady wine

And saw each day as good and fine

That all must end, the circle made

And time to rest in blessed shade

To dream of when your own strong hands

Built Carthage dreams in western lands

 

See my novels and collected verse at Amazon, paperback and 99 cent Kindle HERE