Fibs

'The Arabian Nights', full of fantastic tales
Set in Baghdad, or epic 'Gilgamesh',
A hero's futile effort after life,
Perhaps flattered this Machiavellian prince
To foray fiercely in a foreign field
For fabled weapons furtively concealed
In some Aladdin's cave. More favorable
To figure thus, than that a fakir framed
His foe, fattened his faction from a fiction,
A flagrant, fraudulent, facile façade,
Fallacious fix to foist his forced fiasco,
Feloniously frighted with false fire, [1]
Blasphemed fair Freedom, forged and fabricated,
Fiendish effrontery of a false prophet
To furnish for himself ill-founded profit.
Now, lest the former fantasy affects,
Recall how he set fire to ancient texts. [2]

July 2003

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[1]      See William Shakespeare, 'Hamlet', III.ii.273

[2]      Iraq's treasurehouses of literature were torched in post-war looting.