Opening the Gates of Hell

Four blood moons

A solar eclipse

Siri opens the gates of Hell

Iran enriches its uranium

Building plants

To use for power

Claiming it’s for peaceful purposes

The man who broke the racial boundaries

Suspects they are growing mushrooms

Talks commence

ISIS spreads its rhizomatic roots of radicalism

Out of Syria

Into Iraq

Burning the ancient books

Taking control of ancient buildings

Calling across the globe

To millions of disenfranchised youth;

Europe,

Africa,

America.

Young people swayed by pleasant propaganda

Answering the call to radicalism.

110. Into the Twenty-first Century

The Cold War passed into history.

The climate slowly heated.

A bush was elected

We had another war.

Saddam, the bully, made trouble.

He stomped over to Kuwait.

With a yell of “Mine!” he took the oil.

We went in, took him out, then left.

The bush said no new taxes

But raised them anyway.

We elected a Clinton.

He brought troops to Bosnia

To fight Europe’s genocide.

He warned us of new threats

But his scandal came in too loud.

The Twentieth Century closed with a bang.

Fireworks and fear made an exciting mix.

Computers that proliferated and multiplied like bunnies

Threatened to shut down because of a number.

There was never any chaos.

The end did not come.

In the heat of the warming sun

We moved on into the new Millennium.

Another bush became president.

But it was almost a gore.

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.

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.

90. Napoleon

A new man came.
Napoleon!
A new Caesar.
Napoleon!
To some a great leader.
Napoleon!
To others the scourge of Europe.
Napoleon!
Born of Corsica.
Napoleon!
Joining the army of France.
Napoleon!
Rising through the ranks.
Napoleon!
To shed the short robes for long ones.
Napoleon!
Napoleon!
Napoleon!
From the terrors of the burning revolutions
With fire in his eyes
The deep, calculating general
Moved out and declared war on Europe.
Eastward!
Eastward!
East he marched
Taking land from Austria
With the dream of Rome in his heart.
He went through Spain and Portugal.
To the ends of the European world!
Napoleon found it hard to resist Russia’s calling
So he crossed the border.
The icy blast of the Russian winter drove him back.
He lost the fight.
He was dethroned and forced into exile.
He escaped and rebuilt his army.
Waterloo was his final defeat.
Napoleon only lived on as a person three more times
But his name and memory will last forever.
He joined the graveyard of dead empires and powerful rulers.
Crossing Hades’ mighty river.

89. The Revolution

Russia built its empire.

Revolution rumors flowed in Europe.

Newton,

Hobbes,

Locke,

Milton,

Many others looked at the world, thinking of it in different ways.

The American colonies got rich.

New agriculture increased food production.

Music reached its height as Mozart played.

Beethoven, Hayden and many others.

New ideas.

New art.

New thoughts

Caused the flames to rise.

From the ancient past

Athens with its small flame.

The flame of freedom.

It split and spread into Rome.

Stayed hidden in the Dark Ages.

Resurrected and grew.

It reached across the sea to the colonies of the New World.

Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams,

Many other disciples of freedom

Fanned the flames of descent.

The flames of revolution.

The fires grew

To the drumbeat of war.

Swiftly, the fire spread

Through Europe

Into the other colonies.

They took their destiny from their brutish king.

Breaking the chains of taxation

Making themselves representatives.

The eagle flew from the nest.

Others wanted the chance to fly.

The fires of freedom spread across the world

Burning out of control.

It spread through the minds and hearts of people

Many got burned

Meeting the scorching blade of the guillotine.

A French republic was formed

But, as with the first European Republic,

It didn’t last.

88. The Enlightenment

In a humble workshop

When Copernicus made his deathbed statement

Causing public debate.

“The planets were not right,”

He said

As he drew up the new cosmos.

The church felt threatened.

But what could be done?

Tycho Brahe,

Kepler too

Made changes to the cosmos.

The pope was angry.

No one was to challenge the church

There was no evidence

So the challengers were cleared by conjecture.

Galileo, on the other hand,

Favorite of  a new pope

Polished his telescope

To gaze at the stars

Found that Copernicus was right

About what he said with Mars.

His findings published

Became the new church’s challenge.

Another pope said “Ah ha!”

“I got you, you pesky things.”

Then he sentenced Galileo

To live at home

For the crime of heresy.

Over time the church cooled down.

They became more accepting.

While Newton dropped new laws and math

With the bright red apples

Of alchemy

Of chemistry

Of calculus

To calculate Galileo’s orbits.

An explosion of thought

Bursted out of Europe.

Creating new ideas,

Philosophies and change.

84. Rebirth

More uprisings ripped through Europe.
More plagues.
Europe went through growing pains.
New states were formed.
Spain grew into Iberia.
A second schism
There were two popes.
The pope of Rome and the pope of Avignon
Causing conflict in the church.
A sainted woman made her problems known.
They tried to piece together the church
But couldn’t.
A council was called.
A third pope
Then a fourth antipope
Who found the stake to be too hot.
He’s a pope,
You’re a pope,
I’m a pope,
Everyone’s a pope.
All popes were deposed and a final one was chosen.
The systems of Europe broke down
Then rebuilt into new ones.
Religion continued in its authority.
Plagues came and went.
Wars were fought and new things began to form.
The Dark Ages of the Medieval period drew to a close.
Chaos slowly settled to order.

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.