Empire Of Mankind Poem by Brett Lair

The French girl in a cloche hat spoke,
Red sortie sign, then up the stairs,
The Moulin Rouge, the flagstone steps.
Up the hill where Satie sat.

At the top, the Sacred Heart bled,
for all the people lost in the streets.
I stared out, past the Maid of Orléans
and seized the city in my head.

Down the coil
Only a hundred years late
to see the scene in noir
behind a drape of tricolor.

Bohemians replaced with bright flashes,
bottles down the Élysées,
only an empire of mankind
can bring the Republic to its knees.