Femida

Did Femida go missing
The day Bill killed the Buffalo?
Alas, it was long before then.

Femida had disappeared,
     in 1842,
When Elphinstone's men
     died at Gandamak.

Femida wasn't there,
     in 1838,
To stop Colonel Snodgrass
     at Waterloo Creek.

Femida was long gone,
     in 1822,
When the Ottoman Malitia
     slayed forty thousand Greeks.

Femida might have cried,
     in 1812,
To see Wellington's men
     turn from hell hounds to heaps
     of blood soaked bodies after
     raping and robbing to siege a town
     that was neither their's nor their enemy's
     in the battles of the Napoleonic Wars.

No, Femida had vanished
     from the hearts of men,
Though they may have erected
     great statues in her name.

Eras before that,
     in Sweden, Cyprus and France,
     in Germany and Jerusalem,
     in Macedonia, Xu Province,
     in Britannia and all the lands across the Earth,
Where men laid claim to power and greed,
Where men traded morals for a spear and a crown,
Femida was not heard, nor seen.

Who remembers Femida,
     Lady Justice,
     Goddess Maat,
     Themis of good council?
Did the ancient Greeks
     think of her while they fought their Persian Wars?
Does America betray her now
     as they refuse refuge to those in need?

Is it an act of blasphemy
     when men erect an idol
          for Justice and Equality,
     then give her a sword
          and blindfold her eyes,
Then call themselves forgiven
     when claiming that their treachery
          was all in the name of God.

Femida was never missing.
Femida never cried for us.
Femida was never here at all.

They stood her on a pedestal,
     then silenced her.

They gave her breasts,
     then mauled and raped her.

They put a knife in her hand,
     then murdered her.

Femida will never judge us.

We are Femida,
     and Femida's soul is slain.

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