Rob Crisell, ‘The Virus and the Cure’ – 1st Place Adult Award

The Virus and the Cure

by Rob Crisell

One hundred years of tyranny,
One hundred years of pain and lies.
If communists of China win,
    The Chinese culture dies.

No virus spreads like wickedness.
No plague infects like bogus creeds.
No outbreak lasts a century,
    Nor’s worse than evil deeds.

A virus pierces China’s heart;
It kills the Wheel, it kills the Tao.
A toxin made in Marx’s mind,
    And weaponized by Mao.

Three decades past, there was a chance—
A peaceful group came into view.
With truth, compassion, self-control,
    It made the old ways new.

It offered hope through ancient thought.
It practiced wisdom, love, and Qi,
Exposing communism’s lies
    And negativity.

Departed ancestors gazed down
To see a hundred million strong.
Siddhartha smiled, Confucius bowed,
    A new bloom—Falun Gong.

The virus, though, lives to destroy
All threats to its corrupting power.
It starved, abused, attacked the roots,
    And tried to kill the flower.

O, people of the world, take heed!
A century is far too long.
We must confront this virus now.
    It’s time to right this wrong.

One hundred years of tyranny,
One hundred years of pain and lies.
If communists of China win,
    The Chinese culture dies.

* * *

 

Winner of the 1st Place Adult Award in FoFG’s 2020 Poetry Contest