Burning Through Empires

(ahhhh) Under Roman banners, beneath a burning sky,

Jerusalem was broken, the Temple flames rose high.

Captives crossed the water,

exile drew them near,

And history carved a wound that lasted year by year.

Two thousand years beneath another name,

Different flags above us,

but too often the same flame.

From the stones of ancient Rome to the ghettos locked at night,

A people kept on walking,

holding memory like a light.

Empires turned to kingdoms,

the centuries rolled on,

Old accusations lingered long after Rome was gone.

Marked apart by rulers,

confined behind the gate,

Suspicion became custom, and custom hardened into hate.

No single empire owns each later crime,

But symbols leave an echo that can outlive time.

When power teaches generations Who belongs and who must pay,

The language may keep changing,

But the wound can stay.

Two thousand years beneath another name,

Different flags above us,

but too often the same flame.

From Jerusalem in ashes to the darkest nights of fear,

A people kept on walking through two thousand years.

Two thousand years of questions,

Two thousand years of scars,

Still carrying their memory

Beneath the same old stars.

And history is not destiny,

What hatred carried on

Can finally be faced

Before another age is gone