Dawn breaks over
Babylon—stone,
sky,
and judgment.
Here,
Hammurabi raises a code that
binds a city and tests
a king.
In an age when early
alphabets stirred in the
Sinai,
these laws were cut in
cuneiform,
line by relentless line.
Trade,
theft,
marriage,
price—measured and named.
Harsh,
yes;
enduring,
more.
From this stele,
echoes travel: rights
claimed,
power checked,
society negotiating justice
in public stone.