Ozymandias - An Update Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

Whose is this lost and heartless arcane land
Of pride without pity, faced white with stone,
Whose monuments to power's excess stand
In mockery of simple flesh and bone?

And those who smile and sneer in cold command
Let children drown - jeering the stateless dead
Whose simple needs were scorned and then denied
At banquets set at which the rich were fed.

Instead let us commemorate the lost:
Let those who value kids and family
Dream of boundary rivers safely crossed
And girls and fathers brought to safety

Setting aside all pomp and statuary
For loving care and loving memory.