A Basket of Implorables

In a land not so far away, discontent boiled
like oil waiting for a witch. Two would-be leaders
vowed in different ways to bring stability
to the land – one spoke bluntly with incendiary rage,
the other spoke in whispers behind his hand – but
the more they spoke, the wilder the crowd became,
filling the streets with stomping feet and pitchforks.

Louder they screamed, larger they grew but among
the mobs were three small voices named
Tolerance, Empathy, and Humility who nipped at their heels
and tugged at their coattails. Finding the three irrelevant,
they were stomped and defiled, each group sure
their way was the only way.
Tolerance, Empathy, and Humility were tossed in a basket,
hidden at the bottom of the land, the only thing the two
sides agreed upon, and there they live still waiting
for a renaissance of enlightenment.

***

Prompt via napowrimo.net: “Write a poem of ekphrasis — that is, a poem inspired by a work of art. But I’d also like to challenge you to base your poem on a very particular kind of art – the marginalia of medieval manuscripts.” 

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