This Poem was Submitted By: Irene E Fraley On Date: 2003-08-09 19:26:34 . . . Click Here To Mail this Poem to a Friend!

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Styx on Stone -

(Address of the Prophet to the leaders of the nations) Five rivers flowed around that place of woe. Walking their banks, the unburied wail in lamentation. Imprisoned in fear of eternal fire that burns but will not consume, they crave forgetfulness. Through passage purchased with coin of righteous rage and hate there come the souls to the gates of hell. War brought them there, for men played at war in those days as now, and woe to them that were caught in that tide of hate. In those lands there was much lamentation and the veil of gray, insensate forgetfulness was banished by the purple fire of loss. In battle’s heavy artillery fire, the art of death became routine. War, shredding bodies and minds, allowed no forgetfulness and death ravened over the lands. “Without woe” the generals asked, “where is lamentation? How better to cleanse the lands of hate? The dead know no love, nor loss nor hate but are wailing in fear of the fire of Hell. Cease your lamentation View the rivers turning red as the gift of war.” As the rivers circled round, woe consumed those without the drink of forgetfulness. Why is it that time breeds forgetfulness? The tides of fear and acid hate bring nation after nation into woe. Shall we cross the Styx into nuclear fire, that river that is the drink of hate and war? Shall we survive to wander wailing in lamentation? Mark upon these granite stones the lamentation of a nation suffering forgetfulness. Record the pain and horror of every war. Etch the tale of the wall of blinding hate which blocks the mind from viewing fires burning on the river of woe. Woe to those who cause lamentation. The river of fire shall burn off forgetfulness and prove hate to be the mother of war.

Copyright © August 2003 Irene E Fraley


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