france in disarray

the winger of eight-eight and nine

was aching cold

it chilled the very soul

they came from the country in twos and threes

a trickle

a river

a torrent

a sea

driven by hunger

driven by pain

company.halt!. a hundred thousand reached the barricade

present. fire!. three hundred dead

shot down like rats

three hundred lives

snuffed out like that

have a care if you treat your people like vermin

you could end up with bloodstained ermine

but soft

as ever in the ebb and flow

sweet reason

deft and incorrupt

adoring of the human kind illuminates man's plight

should be embrace

the brute and base

tilt blindly at the carousel

or note

at least

the other voice

and entertain the choice

between the darkness and the light?