A mild distraction

 Nebuchadnezzar perched up in the throne room
in the serving glance captured the execution
Just as the sun came up a man stood disillusioned
soldiers stirred below as the thief was brought out

Almost a pink hue on the sand willing a kill
a forecast that put dishonest blood to spill
The wind silent and anticipating colluding with the palace
almost a breeze in the royal chamber then relapsed

power breaks over the land like the sun and ruler´s gaze
Worshipped Khopesh exposed bright inside it´s rays
Now exposed over the crying thief awaiting babylonian doom
Nebuchadnezzar´s face over the bough of the open throne room

Looking down on the city center´s rabble as it grows
Eyes penetrating the simple souls bound to the sandy expanse below
Generals attempt to capture and imitate his outward looking gesture
collectively reflecting king´s emotions as best they could

The executioner paces toward the king looking for approval
With a serious face King´s head nods smoothly
Crowd gasps as the executioner returns the kopesh to the scabbard
and out comes a rustic whip leathery and barbed

Nebuchadnezzar utters a guttural command
And the generals eyes light up stunned
A small grin appears on the King´s face while below panic and uproar
Immediately lashes echo out, the sun and sand silently applauding

The first beads of blood forming
King´s grin widens and sun rises proportionately
A simultaneous sadistic pulse of a rush
As the man bleets and begs and the crowd hushes

Now the sun shines down shamelessly revealing itself to every nook and cranny
The king feeds on the shock of the masses, his grin widening and uncanny
Generals switch glances between king and spectacle, souless goons
 For now the flesh is in tatters each lash splattering through the wounds

The blood soaks the ground below the thief as he suffers 
His longing to live did not win over the state´s need for justice
teeth appear now and the king´s mouth was sarcastically crafted
The grin burst open like a cannon giving way to hysterical laughter

The soul perspired as whip end licked bone, daydreaming god
The sun too was satiated with the ground´s steaming blood
callousness rising in his majesty, as hoards´ sighs and moans try repeal
Fatuous life of a thief unworthy of slavedom, this moment the most surreal

A punishment merciless beyond reason or measure
Yet the only moment the king felt any semblance of leisure
from the million concrete slabs of bureaucracy
and a world of conquest and bellicosity