ODE TO THE BAGHDAD MUSEUM
Along the Tigris and Euphrates’ verdant, fertile banks
the world first cities started, and in order to give thanks
their people carved in sandstone, ivory and gold
the gods that brought them harvests of the crops they bought and sold
A harp of gold from Sumer, and Hammurabi’s code
that first spoke of rules to guide our lives from youth until we’re old
The final books of Gilgamesh, that first heroic tale
All these things and so many more were accumulated there
No kingdom lasts forever, no walls are tall enough
To the victor goes the spoils, and the fallen then must trust
that their heritage of expression is not trampled into dust
And so down through the ages of the Persians, Greece and Rome
The Parthians and Sassanids, and Muslims more well known,
objects of majestic culture survived and then were stored –
until the twenty-first century when from the west came war
This conqueror was different; no trace of the past he sought
so he let the treasures of millennia be looted by a mob
Now all the world is poorer for the knowledge that’s been lost
of Ur and the Gardens of Babylon how can one assign a cost
Some day he’ll be remembered but not for what he thought
Rather for all the destruction to our heritage he brought
A harp of gold from Sumer, and Hammurabi’s code
that first spoke of rules to guide our lives from youth till we are old
The final books of Gilgamesh, that first heroic tale
All these things and so many more were accumulated there
by Joe Gallagher
Joe Gallagher is a former columnist for the Los Angeles Downtown News and political writer for the Los Angeles City Watch Newsletter. He can be reached at
joegallag2@earthlink.net