One of my poems took first prize a national competition. The contest was created by the Friends of Falun Gong to support their ongoing struggle against persecution at the hands the Chinese government. You can check it out at the Friends of Falun Gong site or read it below.
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.
