112. Another Revolution

The man on the hill,

The man in economic mountains,

The man on the street,

Became bitter enemies

A new revolution

Spreading throughout the world

Occupying the nation

As people protested against failing government and corruption.

Greece tumbled

From economic prosperity,

The Union of Europe

Scrambled to their aid.

Arabs had their spring.

The Middle East erupted with fire

To deal with their bullying dictators.

The Spring turned to Fall

Then Winter

Back to spring.

Iran threatened Israel

Promising possible nuclear annihilation.

As the world continued to burn and change

America looked over the rift of a new election.

Politicians preached their promises to people

Saying they will change.

People went “Psh”

As they play their iPhony games

Being sucked into a Facebook reality.

The election’s rift

Is where the future will be.

No change from said politicians

Nothing from violence and bloodshed.

Slavery on the chocolate Ivory Coast

While men kill and kidnap in Africa.

Nothing new.

Everything’s the same

At least the technology’s shiny.

At least a retweet showed you care.

107. The Cultural Revolution

“You say you want a revolution.”(Revolution, The Beatles)

The sixties.

A new revolution.

A cultural one.

Rock and Roll.

Elvis played.

Then the British invade

With beatles and animals.

Later monkeys and turtles.

They brought the mind tripping psychedelics

And doors that opened perceptions.

Sex, drugs, and colorful hippies

Danced,

Played,

Down and dirty in the streets.

Tune in, turn on, drop out.

Sit down and listen.

Watch.

Hear.

Music fests brought new freedom and rebellion.

All seemed far out.

But no one knew.

The next part of the decade saw great defeat

And great victory.

The descendants of the slaves

Started marching after an incident on the bus.

If it’s worth fighting for

Then they must put in the effort.

They stood up for their rights as equals.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke on the mall of his dream.

An amendment was passed.

Segregation ended.

Vietnam exploded.

Armies were sent.

But things became a lot worse with the new president.

The hippies found a cause to believe in.

They grabbed signs and protested.

They stood up to their government

As they preached peace, love and rose colored glasses

With flowers in rifles.

News became valuable.

Putting faces to the casualties of war.

“Our men are being killed!”

“We must bring them home!”

100. The Good Times

The Twenties roared in.

It was the Jazz Age.

There was a Renaissance in Harlem.

As Langston Hughes wrote

And Louis Armstrong sang

Dizzy swung.

We sing too, America.

We are darker brothers.

With the Duke and Aaron Douglas

We sing and swing with the rest of you.

A new revolution took place.

Women dressed provocatively.

Went places only for men.

Their hair was short,

Their necklaces long

As they swung and danced to the latest crazes.

Movies recorded life.

Things were good.

They spoke easy

Of alcohol in Prohibition.

It didn’t matter if the Capones of the world

Were shooting up banks.

As long as they kept mixing the smooth bootleg liqueurs

In the cellars behind closed doors.

The good times will always continue.

The businessmen didn’t seem to mind

As they kept it cool with Coolidge.

While people in Harlem played their jazz with trumpets

They played theirs with cash registers.

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.

94. Romanticism

Fire.

Fire all around.
Burning out of control.
Riots and revolutions began in Europe once again.
Some feared the French Revolution,
Beheadings,
Napoleon.
The poets and artists wanted people to strive for the best.
To be the best.
Mill wanted freedom and liberty.
They needed equality.
The passionate, romantic, fiery wish to bring back the old ways.
The days of the noble savage.
The days of dreaming with the Greeks in groves of olive trees.
The puffy shirts of Shakespeare.
Selling souls with Faust in goblin markets.
No more of this revolution.
No more of this industry.
We should look back and push forward
Like Janus on the Roman coin.
Always looking to the future.
Always looking to the past.
Never in the present.
The present is too terrible.
What good can come of it?
So two forces push and pull
Like that steam train trying to get started.

91. Prologue IV

O sweet muse!

You have shown me so much.

For that I am grateful.

I’ve seen the living fossils

Evolving from the mud.

I’ve seen the passing of empires

Built on dust and blood.

Fearful men came and went.

Ozymandias statues crumbled to the ground

As new ones were erected over them.

I’ve seen the fires of revolution

The bloody rivers of war and conquest.

Now you point on.

I shake with the thought of future terrors I have yet to see.

You, like the angel of death before my grave,

Silently point to that cobweb encrusted door

Begging me to see that dreaded inscription.

Please muse, I say, must I push on?

Still silently, the bony finger

Clasping blackened scythe

Urges me to push on

As witness.