Ave Caesar

By Robinson Jeffers

No bitterness: our ancestors did it.

They were only ignorant and hopeful, they wanted freedom but wealth too.

Their children will learn to hope for a Caesar.

Or rather—for we are not aquiline Romans but soft mixed colonists—

Some kindly Sicilian tyrant who'll keep

Poverty and Carthage off until the Romans arrive,

We are easy to manage, a gregarious people,

Full of sentiment, clever at mechanics, and we love our luxuries.