5.11.2026 – the greatest city,

the greatest city,
the greatest nation, nothing …
like us ever was

It has happened before.
Strong men put up a city and got
a nation together,
And paid singers to sing and women
to warble: We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation,
nothing like us ever was.

And while the singers sang
and the strong men listened
and paid the singers well
and felt good about it all,
there were rats and lizards who listened
… and the only listeners left now
… are … the rats … and the lizards.

And there are black crows
crying, “Caw, caw,”
bringing mud and sticks
building a nest
over the words carved
on the doors where the panels were cedar
and the strips on the panels were gold
and the golden girls came singing:
We are the greatest city,
the greatest nation:
nothing like us ever was.

The only singers now are crows crying, “Caw, caw,”
And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.
And the only listeners now are … the rats … and the lizards.

Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind, #3 by Carl Sandburg as published in Smoke and Steel in The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (Harcourt, Brace: New York, 1970).

We don’t carry One Dollar bills any more but I had Professor back in college where I studied United States History who gave a one hour lecture based on the back of the One Dollar Bill.

He hit on the In God We Trust and pointed out the Mason’s All Seeing Eye at the top of the unfinished pyramid.

Then he hit on Novus ordo seclorum and that meant, The New Order of the Ages.

And finished with Annuit Coeptis or God has approved our undertaking.

Well sir, it has happened before.

The only singers now are crows crying, “Caw, caw,”

And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.

And the only listeners now are … the rats … and the lizards.

I will also mention the Great Seal of the United States.

Notice the Eagle looks towards the olive branches.

This was a change made by President Truman after WW2.

Had anyone in the current administration had any education in the Presidency, they might have caught and changed that too.

But I ain’t going tell them.