A pivotal year was 1914
The likes of which there's never been,
Slaughter and mayhem on the World scene,
A colossal jolt to mankind
Apocalyptic page unfurled
Played out as all society swirled
Into a maelstrom all lives were hurled –
Peasant or Pauper, King or Queen confined.
Red flames of war died as ashes remained,
Man was crippled, bludgeoned, blood-stained,
It seemed all life from him had drained -
His essence, his psyche undermined.
Empires were erased, new countries born,
Peace bloomed like a flower on a spring morn
As hope rose in hearts terribly torn –
Were people realistic, or blind?
Satan made sure the peace wouldn’t last
So he stirred up trouble as in the past;
Sure enough, the die was cast -
All heeded the dictates of his twisted mind.
Another World War ravaged the Earth,
Lives were counted of little worth
As barbaric acts Liberators did unearth -
Under Nazi boots Jews they did grind.
More heinous weapons were put to use,
So as to stop the brutal abuse
Japan was warned with an atomic noose –
The treaty was duly signed.
The fifties gave us ‘rock and roll’,
The ‘swinging sixties’, Beatles “Rubber Soul”,
And psychedelic seventies dress so droll -
Music and drugs were intertwined.
As the century came to a close
Terrorism grew and gained more foes,
Technology only added to our woes -
Innocents to graveyards were consigned.
Beliefs were selected like ‘pick-and-mix’,
People chose what gave a quick ‘fix’,
The Prince of Darkness was up to his tricks -
Moral compasses became misaligned.
Families fractured, all looked grim,
Ethics discarded at a whim,
Society danced on a volcanic brim –
Listen, the death-knell of Mankind?
