Review Poem by Mary Champion

In strange dreams I review our many lives: -
history has not always been kind,
victory is polluted with pain and loss.
In war, the agents of vengeance often won.
Freedom and justice - were empty words.
Nations and communities were torn apart,
precious truths stifled by the proliferating lies.

Mankind is daily sacrificed on an altar of his own making.
A helpless pawn of passion, he betrayed his promise,
rode on the wings of hate and worshipped Mammon.
And in all this time, he believed
he was following the path of righteousness.

He turned his back on his youthful ideals -
Nature, the animals, and his own kind.
He despoiled the seas, ,
ravaged rivers, mined mountains and pillaged the earth,
felled the trees -
until there was nothing left to shield him.

Through the rusting gates and the narrow straits,
he fled his demons.
In the shadow of twilight and in utter darkness,
in the long hours of the day
he endured his many lives.
He survived death in many different guises.

In my dreams-
I have seen titans fall on the Asian plains,
observed the massacre of nations,
the crucifixion of the weak.

In my dreams I fly like an eagle
and survey our many pasts.
Above the blood-stained land,
I see the hunters and the hunted.
I see the hunters hunted,
women raped,
brave warriors slaughtered.

As an eagle I witness bloody battles,
see the rise and fall of great men and mighty empires.

In my dreams I am wise like an owl-
in temples and in universities, I give instruction.
But my students are fools -
following their blind heart's paths and their own advice -

In my dreams I am a rat - despised and persecuted -
I live beneath the streets in sewers,
through debris and through waste I swim against the tide.

I my dreams I am a cat.
I sit at the feet of tyrants - pharaohs, kings and queens.
I know many of their secrets and keep them all.

When I awake
I am filled with Wisdom.
I share it from the rooftops,
but my fellows are fearful of my words
and I am sectioned!
Sanctioned!
Silenced!