104. The Curse of the Atomic Age

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”

                                            (Oppenheimer quoting the Bhagavad Gita)

After the fall of the west

Japan became a pesky thorn in the backside of America.
The allies didn’t want another invasion.
What could be done?
One man had the answer.
A physicist named Einstein.
He escaped Germany
Finding new power in his equations.
The military came.
Einstein’s power was presented to Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer used it to breed radioactive mushrooms.
He became the Los Alamos mushroom farmer.
The metal spores were planted on the island of Japan.
The world changed with their fiery bloom.
A war was settled.
A new curse was brought to humanity.

103. World War II

The crisis in Europe became a global one.
The allies,
Heroes of the previous war, needed to do something.
America tried her hardest to stay out of it.
The Roosevelt clan was in office again.
He told us not to fear.
The only thing to fear was fear.
In reality, he wanted to get involved.
He needed something,
Anything to take us into the war.
We couldn’t stand idly by while millions of lives were thrown to the fire.
But what could it be?
The date came
That lived in infamy.
Japan, the imperialist,
Sent her planes
Bombing every last ship in the harbor of pearls.
It was a swift and backhanded attack.
Roosevelt said, “That’s it!”
He gave speeches and rallied his men.
They went to Europe
They went to the Pacific
Fighting on two fronts.
Churchill did the same for Britain.
“We will fight them on the beaches”
“We will fight them in the air.”
“We will fight them on the seas”.
“Wherever we are we will rid the world of this great beast.”
They went to Africa.
They took back Poland.
They fought over London.
The allies made a deal with the devil of Russia
Because the Beast had betrayed the Soviets.
The evil one invaded and was pushed back by the same cold Napoleon faced.
Now Russia wanted revenge.
D-day, The Bulge, Normandy,
Finally the push for Berlin
The allied forces pinched and squeezed the blemish that the beast placed upon the earth.
The allies invaded the Axis lands
To make sure of their surrender.
The war in Europe were resolved
After the trial for the Beast’s great minions.
If only they could have kept him alive as well.
Whatever he gets now is still too good for him.

78. The Mongol Empire

Out of the steppes of Central Asia

Came violent nomads

When drought turned grass to dust.

Their animals starved in famine

Their way of life was threatened.

Thunderous hooves of horses

Flowed in all directions

Like a dust storm

They ripped through cities

Setting fire with abrasive sand

Trampling on poor helpless victims.

They crossed the wall in China,

Scaled the mountains in Tibet,

Cornered the people of Korea,

Fought the blistering heat and sands of Iran

Braved the winters of Russia.

All countries fell to the great Khans.

Then rose the great Golden Horde.

Planted in the center of Asia.

Their navies tried for Japan

But the divine winds weren’t with them.

For two days the typhoon blew

Decimating the Khan’s mighty fragile fleet.

The Mongols threatened Europe

Like hungry wolves at Europe’s doorstep

Waiting for their victim to come out

They threatened the people

Only nipping and biting at her heals.

They could go no further.

The death of a king

Quieted the thunderous wave

Of men and horses.

73. Buddhism Spreads

Another man

Who came from great origins

Formed a new religion.

Four visits

Four visions

The old man said I have lived.

The thin man said this is humanity.

The corpse said I was once alive.

The holy hermit said I was once like you.

He fell from lofty heights

In remorse and new enlightenment.

He rejected old decedent ways

To go on a pilgrimage through his land.

He talked with many people

As he travelled the Middle Way.

His religion of enlightenment flowed throughout the world.

He found patronage in India.

That’s where it began.

He spun the wheel of Dharma

With his sermon to the five.

He wandered through India

Continuing his quest.

In an abandoned jungle

Sitting in the shade of his little tree,

He thought,

He meditated,

Until he understood everything.

Disciples to spread it further

Preaching to others

Who preached to others and so on.

The religion continued to spread

Through China in the north,

Through Korea to Japan in the east,

Through Cambodia in the south.

All adopted this new religion.

Spirituality flowed out

Like the peaceful branches of the mighty Bodhi tree

Into the world of heavenly light.