99. The Spanish Flu

I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window
And Influenza.
As war raged on in Europe
A different one raged on at home.
I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window
And Influenza.
With a cough and a sneeze
It devastated families.
I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window
And Influenza.
Hospitals filled
With this terrible sickness.
I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window
And Influenza.
Many died
In the wake of the flu.
I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window
And Influenza.
Leaving families
Torn apart.

83. The Black Death

After the War of a Hundred Years

Things went well for Europe.

They started to emerge from the darkness.

Then the world changed.

Trade with China made people rich

But a problem soon arose.

The merchants with goods and wares

Brought rats with fleas and disease.

A plague swept through Europe from the east.

Not a single place was safe.

No one could escape

Death’s horrible black cloak

Or his sharpened shining scythe.

The bravest act a man saw

Was a woman sewing herself into her own shroud.

Death and destruction ran rampant through the streets.

Peasants rioted and revolted.

“It’s the end of the world!”

An Italian would say.

Nothing could be done.

Passion plays were performed.

Self-abuse inflicted.

People blamed others.

They blamed Jews.

Placing them with heretics and witches.

People went on pilgrimages

As Chaucer’s Tales

Kept them entertained

With stories long ago.

The plague continued to wreak havoc

In the countries

Demolishing old ways.

76. The Normans

For a time
War was settled in the Holy Land.
In the west
War came to France and England.
The Confessor died without an heir.
England was promised to Normandy.
The earl of Wessex and the king of Norway
Wanted it for themselves.
The Confessor named the earl his heir
Much to the Norman and Norwegian’s disappointment.
The Norman scooped up armies all through France.
He put them on ships
To sail across the English Channel.
In England he became the Conqueror.
To complete his goals
He replaced the native rulers.
On his deathbed he regretted everything.
“I persecuted them.”
“I cruelly oppressed them.”
“Destroying families.”
“I did it unjustly and I’m sorry for it.”
With his final dying breath he said.
“I dare not leave my kingdom to anyone but God.”
William conqueror of England
Conquered by death.

45. Sparta

To the South in the lands of the Peloponnese

There was a mighty race of men.

The Spartans

They were brave

Marching in military formation.

Living a utilitarian lifestyle

In barracks.

The state owned the Spartan man

From birth until death.

Any children not suitable

Were abandoned.

This was where Ares lived

They fed off of blood

Drinking of the spoils of constant war against helots

Eating the gentle cow.

Were toughened by conflict and civil strife.

They made slaves of the locals

Messenians twice rebelled.

They were subdued both times.

Colonizing as needed.

While Athens was founded on the intelligence of the gray eyed one

Sparta was founded on the dreaded god of war.

When a Spartan was young

He was a ball of flesh

The handlers of the herd

Whipped him and trained him

Until he hardened into stone.

The barracks was home.

Men were warriors first

Husbands second.

Even the women were hardened and powerful.

They buried their children proudly

When they died for Sparta

For that was why they were born.

Men were there to fight and die noble deaths

As they turn back the foemen’s sharp edged battle lines.

Sparta was double edged for Greece.

Inspiring fear

Inspiring imagination.

Admired in peace.

Dreaded in war.

They became powerful.

Many looked upon them

As a great ideal

Of patriotism

To uphold.

24. The Catastrophe

The gardener of the sky looked down at his creations.

He decided that he was finished with these lizards.

He was tired of them lording over the smaller animals.

He needed to prune the overgrowth back.

So he pointed down at North America.

A star fell from the sky.

Slamming into the earth.

Destruction rained down on the once mighty reptiles.

Shock waves ripped through the crust.

Burning dust and rock flew up into the atmosphere,

Rained back down,

As tsunamis stirred the oceans.

Volcanic and cosmic ash filled the skies

Blocking the sun.

The saurian empire fell.

With the last rays of light.

The cold grip of death

Slowly

Took

Hold

In the darkened world.

3. Galaxies, Stars and Planets

Gas,

Dust,

Light,

Energy,

Matter,

Atoms,

Molecules,

Etcetera, etcetera,

Forever and ever amen.

Swirling around in blackness.

Growing together

Gaining mass.

Stars group together to become massive stellar octopi.

Black holes,

The eternal darkness

Set the octopi in motion

As they eat the stars.

Slowly spiraling through the cosmos

Super-massive stars ignite,

Burn out

Explode into novae and supernovae.

The remnant nebulae become wombs for new stars

Life begins anew.

They are the heavy element factories.

Expelling gas and dust around them,

Forming heavier objects.

Fragments of burning rock

Slowly coming together.

Birth and rebirth are part of the universe.

Out of destruction comes creation.

The fall of one star ignites new ones.

The old reforms to new.

Cycles continue over centuries and millennia.

Planets form,

Are destroyed.

The process is repeated.

Life,

Light,

Land

All come and go.

Repeating throughout the universe.

The divine laws of physics and quantum physics are set in place.

The stars have their job and they do it well.