The Servant Leader

In the season of the ballot He came on his knees Like a servant and saint He sought to be crowned leader He reminded us of his humble breeding In the creeks of our land He was our very own And so, we chanted slogans In the hinterland and on the highways We had found our servant leader The true Man of the citizens had come To do the will of WE THE PEOPLE And so, we chanted from dawn to nightfall We had found the one to bring down The torsos of former despots That sting our eyes from accursed daises Along roads they refused to tar And so, we defied the scorch and downpour To defend the ballots to secure his mandate With his left hand on the Holy Book And the right raised to the Heavens He swore to lead us like none had done before Then he entered the Palace and inhaled the air Then he tasted the food and drank the wine Then he sat on the sofa and laid on the bed Then he slept and arose with roses at his feet Then the spirit of the palace possessed him In a short sequence our very own was altered We who chanted on the streets and the creeks Became brigands in his eyes and had to be quelled Before our eyes, the servant leader turned sovereign The servant leader turned builder of statues He brought down busts of former lords and planted On pothole-riddled bridges horrid statues of himself In every town, large and small stood a statue of him Made of limestone, wood, bronze, marble and clay He likened his images to that of the Redeemer And those of Liberty and the Sphinx Upon all his name is engraved Those who dared not to worship the sovereign leader Were sentenced to piteous fates What men labored for decades to build He pulled down by decree between the sun and moon Once a Man of the Citizens, the servant leader Sought immortality by abolishing the ballot To attain everlastingness, he opened the vaults And the lords proposed that he be beatified Even while blood flowed in his veins Thus, the servant-leader became a Saint among us Now, having long abandoned the companion of his youth He sought our wives and daughters to quench his lust But the curses of our naked Mothers spoke for us Alas! We hear the servant-leader pleads for mercy But to forgive him will be counted as sin unto us For he betrayed the trust of WE THE PEOPLE