He wants to offer clemency,
A pardon to confer
To every guilty party: he
As the Great Pardoner
Will pardon himself in advance
For foul deeds yet to do:
Let anyone who looks askance
Beware what might ensue.
How long before a murder gets
Reprieve because the victim
Had crossed his path? The despot hits
At those whose acts afflict him,
Although it be but questioning
To understand the truth:
A man who wants to be the king
Has little use for ruth.
Ruthless he acts and ruthless fells
Whatever blocks his path,
Scarcely concerned for little else
Within the aftermath
Beyond his petty preservation—
For so the despot rules—
Of person, though a wounded nation
Leaks blood in flowing pools.
His person before principle,
Self-preservation king,
No deed too reprehensible
Or vile for him to bring
To execution, foul fruition,
Unmitigated act,
Which conscience stunted by attrition
Cares little to retract.
You see the tyranny in force:
Alas, the will of men
Makes trouble into something worse
That will not finish then,
Impossible to rectify,
Recover or redeem,
The former spirit, dead thereby,
But remnant of a dream.
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