105. The Cold War

The cold beast from the north

Became colder when he and China had their revolutions.

After the great global wars

Soviet and American became enemies.

Totalitarian Soviet dictator

Democratic American president

Dropped the iron curtain

Splitting the Germanies and Berlins.

Democracy and Communism.

Locked in a frozen war.

An arms race

Made the mushroom proliferate.

New breeds were developed.

Each one more powerful than the last.

We sold our souls to end the war.

The threat of hellish fire was the price we paid.

Each side had the bomb now.

There was always the chance of annihilation.

The clock on the magazine

Told the time

Counting the minutes to Doomsday.

More countries caught Communism.

It spread like an evil red disease

With that came the bomb.

Everyone wanted the bomb.

Everyone thought their country would benefit.

The United States and Britain needed quarantine.

They sent spies.

The other side sent spies too.

Democracy was a disease to Russia.

Governments became quiet with secrets.

People questioned what was going on.

Iron eating moths of mistrust nibbled into their curtain

They watched each other through their holes

As the fog of paranoia flowed out into the land.

79. Marco Polo

Europe worried about the Golden Horde.
To her the enemy was at the gates
Waiting to come in.
Eyeing his prey
As they moved and carried on with business.
They needed emissaries.
The Polo family
Famous for their merchant voyages
Took young Marco eastward.
China told them they were interested.
“Go back to your land,”
The emperor said,
“Bring your religion, science and arts to me.”
“I must see them.”
They went back
Hoping to see the emperor again.
With the pope’s blessing
A trek of three and a half years
Brought Marco to Xanadu
Where the Great Khan sat.
The Polos fashioned new weapons
As Marco became the ambassador.
He learned many things in Asia
As he traveled to distant lands.
He helped escort a princess.
He told of his adventures
On his way back home.
They were told under lock and key
As prisoner of war
Then written down
As a free man
Telling of his famous journey.
Countries got rich with what he learned
Inspiring future explorers to seek out new lands.
He brought back a wonderful drug
As his stories inspired generations
The Silk Road was opened.
Then Kublai Khan fell to the dust of time
The Mongol empire fell with him
Disappearing under its sandy dunes.

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.

65. The Pax Romana

A second triumvirate was formed

That hunted the traitors.

The last of the Romans

Fell over Caesar’s token

Across the river Styx

As the battle for Rome’s future raged all around him.

The traitors died.

Antony met Caesar’s consort

Her country fell when he left

The snake took care of that.

The August one came

In the turmoil after the Julian.

Declaring himself princeps

He rested the exhausted Rome

On her glorious throne

Dressed in an empress’s gown.

During the august one’s reign

Rome grew fat with offerings.

She lay in peace and prosperity

On her throne

Surrounded by presents from across the land.

Silks from China,

Ivory from Africa,

Jewels and spices from India,

Gold and silver flowed from France

Her conquests took her to the Danube.

She was sung to sleep by great poets.

Virgil telling tales of Aeneas,

Horace singing to Grecian pots

Livy told the truth,

Ovid mixing history and myth.

As she rested her mighty head

Smiling to herself on the august one’s lap

He declared Rome to be at peace

Calling himself “Restorer of the world.”

After him dynasties came.

Julio Claudians provided stability,

Flavians gave Rome a proper public crown,

The five good ones spread the empire further.

Emperors came and went like weather.

Some were fair

Others stormy.

35. China

A great green jade,

Grew out of three rivers.

Yangtze, West, and Yellow.

They developed communities of farmers.

Growing and prospering despite the floods.

They decided that they needed leaders

They prayed.

The gods answered.

Three sovereigns,

Five emperors.

Then the age of dynasties.

Xia begot Shang,

Shang begot Zhou who brought feudalism and Confucianism’s polite ways

The primitive Great Wall took shape.

The Autumn of the Zhou period led to new dynasties, finally giving birth to the Qin.

Qin begot Han

Han begot Xin and the Three Kingdoms

Three Kingdoms begot Jin

Jin begot South and North who begot Sui

Tang,

Five Dynasties,

Ten Kingdoms,

Liao,

Song,

Yuan,

Ming,

All passing on the Great Wall

Rebuilding,

Adding to it,

Strengthening it,

Lengthening it,

Through deserts,

Over mountains,

In forests,

Across rivers.

It stretched across the land.

Protecting the people for centuries.

Continuously building from the elements that came before.