The Tower of Babylon

let us now dally and converse
we have both means and time
on Babylon, its famous curse
and the preceding crime
(I'm surely not alone in thinking
the tale requires a bit of winking
building a tower to the sky?
to take the gods on? my oh my)

me thinks a simpler explanation
behind the age old curse
more likely it was God's frustration
with poems in free verse
and -- this is hard to counteract
the final straw may be abstract

I'm guessing there are cuneiforms
(although I lack the uniform)
that would confirm my version
of the divine aversion
to claiming something is a poem
from Solomon to Rehoboam
and not to mention Alighieri
unless it's extra-ordinary
it may as well be just a story
and layered up, a tower
and in this divine allegory
you can't have that much power

why don't you take this simple test
read it out loud -- I do not jest
could you remember it, recite
its lines from A to Z?
Like ever? Ever? Then no might
can ban its memory
but if it's adjectives galore
each preening like a metaphor
and rambling sentences, run on
then for the love of God, begone

some languages call it a tongue
and words, they're our dessert
words that are aching to be sung
and though we come from dirt
we build our towers to the sky
it's not for gods to question why
it's not above our station

but pray they have a strong foundation