Satan's Century

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?