The Barbarians have 
breached the walls of the Citadel
and are running amok,
destroying the sacred texts 
of our ancestors.

Where are the Prefects? 
Where are those with the power
to call allies to our side
and stop these Philistines 
from wrecking the temples?

This time the Barbarians 
had no need to scale the walls,
nor rain war upon our battlements, 
because the Leaders and the Prefects 
opened the gates for them.

The Barbarians no longer howl and rage, 
nor are they covered in blood and rough animal skins.
They dress politely and speak in dull, flat tones.

The Bureaucrats have breached the walls of the Citadel
and they are turning us out of our homes.

p.a. morbid is a poet, historian and outsider artist. He runs The Black Light Engine Room Press and The Middlesbrough History Project. No Longer Waiting was inspired by the decimating of the Reference Library stock and is from his collection Gorged On Light (Black Light Engine Press).