95. The Victorian Age

Africa, the overlooked continent
Was explored and colonized.
Europe crawled out of the dust of revolution.
Taking over the world like infesting ants.
The new nation of America wanted some of their own.
Yet they were no match for Great Britain’s might.
Britain took many lands for himself.
India, Africa, North America, Central and South America, Australia, The Middle East.
All given over to the crown.
Each soldier planting their bloody flag into new territory.
Victoria became queen bringing the world to her.
Proclaiming herself India’s Empress
As Disraeli crowned her.
At home, while fossils were contemplated,
People enjoyed the new “Oriental things”
That were brought to them.
Men from India assimilated
As Tennyson welcomed his new British brothers
Rejoicing in one voice,
“Britain hold your own.”
They thought the sun would never set on their mighty empire.
In the coming years
They will see that they were wrong.

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.

34. India

Between the mountains and the sea,

A large ruby grew out of the Indus River Valley.

Precious material

Flowed in flooding waters

Down mountains

Collecting in the mud and muck of monsoonal runoff.

Their lives were better

Despite the turmoil of the floods.

Their gods smiled down on them

They grew in their radiance.

Bigger than Egypt and Sumer

It fed on merchants and agriculture.

Thriving to build cities

For a thousand years.

Slowly, their gods became stronger

Taking root in the fertile Indus River mud.

They were fed by visionaries

Chanting through Vedic mantras and stories

Ganesh, Indira and all the others.

Then, when the civilization was too weak to go on,

Invaders came from the North.

To change the old order

The gods matured

Through war and bloodshed.

Chiefdom was traded for Oligarchies and hierarchy.

The caste was born.