prophecy

“Milestones Toward Oblivion” and the other poems here are poems about the Apocalypse, also known as Armageddon, the End Times, the Last Days, the Day of Judgement, the Final Countdown, the Final Battle, the Final Battleground, the Cataclysm, the Catastrophe, Nuclear Holocaust, Nuclear Winter, MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction), etc.

Milestones Toward Oblivion
by Michael R. Burch

“A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
—Ronald Reagan

"Listen" is a prophetic poem I wrote around age 17 or 18, then revised and completed around 20 years later. 

Listen
by Michael R. Burch
also published as Immanuel A. Michael

Listen to me now and heed my voice;
I am a madman, alone, screaming in the wilderness,
but listen now.

Listen to me now, and if I say
that black is black, and white is white, and in between lies gray,
I have no choice.

Does a madman choose his words? They come to him,
the moon’s illuminations, intimations of the wind,
and he must speak.

These are apocalyptic poems about possible dark futures for mankind and the planet he depends on for life and sustenance. Are we condemning our children and grandchildren to live underground, like moles, if they live at all?

Is there any Light left?
by Michael R. Burch

Is there any light left?
Must we die bereft
of love and a reason for being?
Blind and unseeing,
rejecting and fleeing
our humanity, goat-hooved and cleft?