Ashoka Insists with Hard Things
The Maski iteration edict
Maski edict (detail) ~ Wikipedia
An emperor gives commands and they are carved
In stone a thousand miles away. A bulge
Of rock gives overhang defence. Once starved
Of contact with him, people now indulge
His hacked in words by just ignoring them
As mutely and calmly as his wife
Puts up with him. She lifts his royal hem
And lets him have his way. His fleshy knife
Thrusts upward and engraves another son
Inside her. Both of them will just abide
Him since they must, akin to everyone
Beneath his edict on that mountainside.
..Old habits win. Folk still get on with things
….Despite their hot as incense whimsied kings.