Persians, Yet Again, At The Periphery

As we watch the demise of democracy
we ponder the complexities of Pericles
and wonder if our apparent democracy
is the same as his apparent democracy.
As Athens drowned in a sea of waring
complexities, poor decision making and
a traditional and unreasoning occultism,
so, too, are we drowning. Our short
experiment with this ancient political
form is in its final hour, as we wait
and watch and wonder where we go to now.

We have had our Ionian War, our Rule
of the Thirty, our Antiphons and Theramenes,
our profanation of the mysteries and disastrous
Sicilian expedition, but what will be our surrender?
A recrudescent right-wing authoritarianism,
now known or not known, an anarchous nationalism,
a barbarism of the proletariat, a peaceful, quiet,
democratic theocracy with the future in its bones
and Persians, yet again, at the perifery?

Ron Price
19 December 1995