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Prophecy

by Chris Sorrenti


I have been to the brightly wrapped box
Of promises and lies
And did not like what I found there

Eagerly I unwrapped the colored paper
As a child on Christmas day
But could never have imagined what I saw inside

Old blood spilled anew in hourly updates
A planet in chaos...revolution
Churning ever higher this ubiquitous ocean of red

Despite all the good people
A virus run amok in the garden of Eden
Where strong and weak alike were tested

Participant...and non-participant...through proxy
Wondering if we were truly in the end times
The prophecy of 2012 soon realized?

For all around I saw corruption...
Greed...wickedness...wars and rumors of wars
...Plutocracy...

Legitimate governments trumped by the rich
Bankers…corporate executives
Growing fat off inflated salaries…bonuses

Lining up for financial bailouts in Lear jets
Milking the middle class as serfs in the middle ages
Then scolding them for trying to live comfortably

While the hungry...weary of taxed...oppression
As cattle prodded did whatever they were told to do
As long as oil kept flowing through the Suez Canal

But suddenly awakened...
Then empowered...in a single living mass
They began to rebel

And like Marie Antoinette
Who once said “Let them eat cake”
The people responded “Off with her head!”

When once righteous nations
Perverted by their own success...military power
Began to fall...

I have been to the brightly wrapped box
Of promises and lies
And did not like what I saw there

And in seeing
What scares me the most
Is that I have born witness to the age old conspiracy

Where the past
Is still the present...
The present but a glimpse of the future

© 2011

1,490 hits as of April 2023

02/08/2011

Posted on 02/09/2011
Copyright © 2024 Chris Sorrenti

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by Charlie Morgan on 02/09/11 at 02:36 AM

...Chris, not mild but more mild than wild; punctuated by an omnipresence of vista--you've robbed the mountain Guru of a job. well done! very well done!

Posted by Joan Serratelli on 02/09/11 at 06:00 PM

I read this 3 times and got more out of it with each read Great food for the mind

Posted by Gregory O'Neill on 02/10/11 at 08:41 AM

One mans anarchy is another man's fresh start! You dug-in on this one, and it brings a nice poetic payoff! Thanks.

Posted by Quentin S Clingerman on 02/10/11 at 07:42 PM

"...and the end is not yet." Insightful look at what and continues to happen in this old world.

Posted by Morgan D Hafele on 02/14/11 at 12:12 PM

couldn't have said it better myself.;)i have a feeling though that the rich will mostly get their way as long as they keep signing the pay checks, at least until the people are ready for a revolution. which, in the 1st world countries, it seems the people are going to need some serious prodding.

Posted by Kristina Woodhill on 03/07/11 at 04:57 AM

So well expressed - "the brightly wrapped box of promises and lies" - I like how you develop this with such calm force, even as disturbing as the end is.

Posted by Glenn Currier on 03/08/11 at 07:08 PM

Chris, all I can say is thank you for this. You have said so well and powerfully what I cannot bring myself to write about. You are not one to pull punches and I am glad for your honesty and your decision to stand up and wave this flag.

Posted by James Zealy on 03/09/11 at 05:41 PM

I like this Chris a lot. I am a history major who turned technical because I had no choice. What is tragic, is we are spoon fed drivel from blogs, cnn made for TV movies, and we fail to observe the tests and lessons our past have taught us, because we just don't have the desire to look. So we never learn from erroneous judgement, and repeated faux pas, because no one bothers to look to see if it was tried before and failed. When it is realized no one has an adequate answer, but is merely making excuses for the purpose of control and power for their own ends, is when we see uprisings like occured in Egypt and is arising in Libya and someday here.

Posted by Julie Adams on 03/10/11 at 07:05 PM

...this is great Chris! I love the repetition of the first stanza, the ancient and modern imagery, some really struck me, like: "Milking the middle class as serfs in the middle ages/ Then scolding them for trying to live comfortably" AND stanza's 11 and 14. So much to swallow, too much for my lunch break, but rest assured this will go in my favs to be revisited. Kudos for this timely piece, jewels xoxox

Posted by Clara Mae Gregory on 03/12/11 at 01:53 AM

It is getting there....brilliant work, Chris.I am slow to getting around to finally reading this, but I sure am glad I did. :)

Posted by Elizabeth Jill on 03/15/11 at 02:13 AM

This is so powerful in its truth and delivery.

Posted by Ulyss Rubey on 04/02/11 at 08:30 PM

amen brother.

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