"The Prophecies of Asu-Three streams of the river"

Hearken to me children if your ears take the dare
Gather and listen to the Prophecies of Asu.
That is my name and my tale now begins;
Please, take a chair.

Rivers and tributaries; such is the way the future flows
Different paths lain before us
Here now a musing on where these streams will go.

One path past the now leads to great ill
The Kings of Freedom continue foul deeds
Past their time of departure;
A reign extended for a paper emperor
Aided by the chaos they need.

Devastation comes to Freedom again
Brought by shadowy men with no names
Except those given us by the Kings
Succession suspended; sheep comply in shame.

But not all sleep through Freedom’s demise
I’ll talk of these deeds later
A tale of how Kings’ deeds drive people to rise
And take back what was theirs
Through blood and toil; deeds fair and foul.

Another path now down we float
A story of a Queen to be
Scepter passed from the Kings
With the illusion of a people’s vote.

The royal legacies preserved by apathy
And sleeping people programmed
By glowing boxes
And talking heads
With predictions of victory

Good men fall to the ambitious matriarch
Voices drowned out by the siren’s call
Machines set to insure the result
And continue Freedoms’ pitiable fall.

The Queen promises hope
But finds the crown heavy with price
Worn still by the machine
To whom she sold her soul
Still in shadow; crafting dark dreams.

Little changes on this road
Illusions continue; the Machine hums.
The world and Freedom die slower
But not enough is done

Where once we fought men
Soon the earth becomes the foe
The Queen rules long
Near the end of her reign
Our folly begins to show.

Coasts sinking and the seas rise
The chaos that once fed the machine
Grows bitter and it chokes it on itself.
Too late realizes it wasn’t so wise.

Facing doom humankind becomes an ugly lot
Beyond anything the Machine can handle
The Queen, her successor, the world overwhelmed
Ruling over the nearly extinct
Wars are waged with the Queen at the helm.

Freedoms’ soul is lost as it kills to survive
Water, food, oil, hope in very short supply
Enemy of the world now
Hell reigns and missiles fly.

Decades down the path now
Queen long gone and the Kings too
Machine broken beyond repair
Freedom becomes a nation of anarchy
Humankind brought low, world in despair.

Extinction nearly imminent
Brought to our beginnings
Fighting for food from our caves
The cockroaches are winning

One last branch of the river I see
A stream of hope
A river that flows to clean oceans
And friendlier skies
A man of peace rises and accepts destiny

Once part of the machine now removed
Seeking more generous pursuits
Humanity now his platform
Rewarded finally for showing the truth.

Man of peace resists the call
The people cry in desperation
Too long under the Machine’s heel
The cry becomes a chorus
“Help us to save ourselves from the fall”

Man of peace finally learns the lesson
To change the Machine; be the Machine.
Only through power can you save the powerless
Late he heeds the cry and wins the election.

The Kings tremble and plot
No hold on this Man of Peace
He tears their plans asunder
Humanity before hegemony
They even try to have him shot

Gunman fails, truth prevails
The Machine is reprogrammed in our image
Man of Peace leads, not rules
The world follows; Birth of a new age.

United under a common vision at last
A future for our children
Not the Hell the Kings would leave
But a world together for the good of all
Greed and hatred someday in the past.

Long after the Man of Peace of course
These things will take years
Perhaps centuries but they will come to pass
Led by a Man of Peace; not of war and fear

I am Asu, I tell only what I see
A possible future or one that will never be.
-Asu

No love for the prophecies huh? I'll go back to boring columns I guess.