Questions Of A Worker Reading History

I stumbled upon this excellent poem today and thought I'd share it; incredibly thought provoking!

"Questions Of A Worker Reading History"

Who built seven-gated Thebes?
Books list the names of kings.
Did kings haul the blocks and bricks?
And Babylon, destroyed so many times
Who built her up so many times? Where
Are the houses where the construction-workers
Of gold-gleaming Lima lived?
Where did the masons go at nightfall
When they finished mortaring the Wall of China?
High Rome is full of victory arches.
Who put the up? Whom did the Casesars
triumph over?

Did chronicled Byzantium build only palces
for its inhabitants? In fabulous Atlantis
the drowned bellowed in the night when the sea
swallowed them up after their slaves.

Young Alexander conquered India
Just he?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Didn't he at least have a cook with him?
Philip of Spain wept when his Armada
Went down. Did no one else?
Frederick the Great won out in the Seven Years War.

Who won besides?

A victory on every page.
Who cooked the victory feast?
A great man every decade.
Who paid the bills?

Lots of facts.

Lots of questions.

--Bertolt Brecht