Last Broadcast

 
“We, the most faraway people
on the earth,
the last of the free
shielded until today
by our remoteness
and obscurity,
even here we know
what everybody knows:
that those who know
little about us
are by their very ignorance
convinced we are a prize:
beyond us there’s nothing
but rocks and waves
and our invaders
more deadly than these—
bowing in submission,
escaping in a boat
won’t keep them in their arrogance
from killing us.
Pillagers of the world—
a rich enemy excites
their cupidity, a poor one
their avarice for power.
East and West they
devour, and still they must
have more.
Rich or poor, their greed
drives them to rapine,
robbery, butchery—
and this
they call ‘government.’
Everywhere they are
is wiped out
in desolation—and this
they call ‘peace.’”

after Tacitus