Nero rules the Roman Empire
He Administrates the Arts
To assure their purity of form
Their relevance to policy and practice
Their wholesome All-of-Rome
Image for public approval
For profit in export abroad
Preferred by Nero now
Is almost to admit
You are a toxic narcissist –
You share that self-same mania
Narcissistic control
Nero throws a beano
His shadow by its torchlight
Tosses money-beads
To provoke artistic dogfight
His joy in creating drama
Nero’s concert party wines and wends
Those who closely court his countenance
Praise his magnificence
Dedicated to the finer arts
Business art and art disinformation
Rome is now annexed as Nero’s Garden
All roads lead to Nero’s Auditorium
Fall asleep there and you wake up dead
Likewise should you satirise unwisely
Rapping strophes of his ecstatic oafs
‘Whose dog are you?’ they beg
Their hound to hound existence one long party
‘In preference’ you say
You follow a stoical
Invisible thread you find reliable
Those arts preferred by Nero
Prefer Nero as a cultural and philanthropic hero
Though few can doubt the fate of Rome
Is cast by such an eminently ‘civilised’
Contagious mental illness
.
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
.