Authors note: Readers of the following poem should note that is a sort of reflection of WB Yeats poem 'The Second Coming'. While mirrored in its composition, it also seeks to be a continuation of his narrative,  an updated answer to his question of what beast slouches towards Bethlehem to be born...

A New Dawn

The widening gyre continues to turn,
The falcon continues without concern,
Ruins more common, the center falters,
society sprawls upon dark altars,
Hateful, their bloody thirst can’t be sufficed,
our innocents stolen as sacrifice;
Our potential heroes refuse to act
for fear their families will be attacked.

Surely our people will wake and notice,
Surely a New Dawn will burn the lotus.
A New Dawn! I can barely pen the words
without visions of that dark silhouette:
the bloody lion of a bloody god
demanding blood tribute without mercy,
moving to and fro with its dark purpose;
Sunbirds drowning en mass in its shadows.
Robes attempt to veil our eyes, but we know
those centuries of calculated lies
we were force-fed with that desert lotus
for this dark hour of culmination:
The foul desert beast set loose on the world. 

© Jeremy L. Heath, 2025. All rights reserved