Armageddon in the Making in Our Postmodern Time

Armageddon* in the Making 

in Our Postmodern Time

Dr Abe V Rotor

* The Book of Revelation is often interpreted as a symbolic and apocalyptic work, with Armageddon representing the final cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil. 

1. Fiery Serpent at Sunrise 

A streak of fiery cloud hangs on the Eastern horizon as seen

from the author's residence at Lagro, QC. 

It hangs menacing over the empty horizon

this streak of fire in the sky;

where it came from it's hard to deny,

but from the dreaded land of Armageddon.

It came from the home, car and furnace;

factories and burning forests;

little volcanoes thought harmless

scorching our Mother Earth's face.

I stood there to say my morning grace,

Hello sun! Hello New Day!

Now, now, what have I to pray?

Would my Creator accept my praise? 

2. A Piece of Armageddon

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Overcrowded Earth, Manila.  Photo by the author c. 1990

                                                                    

Armageddon in human hands released,
     piece by piece ticking with the clock;
innocence denied, sanity defied
     to the final shock.

Time capsules all into infinity:
     pleasure and pain, evil and goodness -
all that is on planet earth,
     into emptiness.

It's Sodom revived, so with the Flood
     and Vesuvius a thousand times;
and in war none but the innocent
     is the price.

And the god in man and man in God
     in futile struggle comes to end
the earth shall be no longer,
      so with a heaven.

Fabled paradise shall be no more,
     lost and regained, and finally gone;
Then a new world shall rise - perhaps
     without man. ~ 

3.Armageddon Shroud

(Dirge over a Burning Sky)

A sugar mill furnace at night in Batangas.  

Photo by the author c. 1989

The night has a thousand eyes,

bright and twinkling in song;

but one dreary night one cries

out, the cry of Armageddon.

No song can bring back the moon

and the stars - they've died out

under a blanket of doom

where spirits roam about.

No other but his own death,

and the earth's, man is doomed;

masked by power and wealth, 

softly he digs his own tomb. ~

 4. Dirge of a Dying Creek

"I am dying mother -

but my mother doesn't answer;

my mother doesn't answer."

Dr Abe V Rotor

The afternoon sun casts an aura of the creek's once beautiful state with trees and shrubs lining its banks. Now the creek is virtually dead - biologically. Note highly polluted water and dumped quarry materials blocking the natural waterway. (Parallel Aurora Blvd, QC)

Once upon a time, so the story goes, clouds gather

from the sea and land, cumulus to nimbus,

falling as rain, drenching the trees and grass and all,

and down the lake and river and field it goes.

I was born this way, like my kin, many miles away,

children of Pasig River, seat of a civilization,

the artery of vast Laguna Lake and historic Manila Bay,

and I, a tributary of this magnificent creation.

I lived in the stories of Balagtas the poet laureate,

in Rizal's novels, Abelardo's Kundiman song,

I throbbed with the happy heart of a living system,

like the Rhine, Danube, Nile and Mekong.

I am part of history, obedient to man and nature's will,

I gave him clean water and fish, I sang lullaby;

laughed with the children at play under my care,

through generations and time sweetly went by.

Seasons come and go, the story goes on - ad infinitum -

but where are the birds that herald habagat?

where have all the children gone after class, in summer?

reflection on my water, green carpet on my rock?

I am dying, dear mother, I long for you and my kin,

I choke with debris, laden with waste matter,

my banks are no more, concrete walls have taken over,

I am dying mother - but my mother doesn't answer;

my mother doesn't answer. ~

Balete or Strangler's Fig clings on an adobe rock cliff.

Views of middle stream, and upper stream to the east. 

The creek is now an open sewer, ugly, obnoxious

Outgrowth extends over the creek as if to hide its pathetic 

condition and man's indifference from public view.

Just across the creek to the north lies a man-made pond of 

the Oasis - serene and aesthetic, except the foul air of 

Carbon Dioxide, Hydrogen Sulfide, methane, ammonia 

and other gases,  being emitted by the nearby creek

5. Armageddon in Art
Colors of Armageddon

Two Faces of Armageddon in acrylic by the author

When red is fire, black is death,

romance no longer in the air

and black a tragic beauty

of ultimate warfare.

Suffer the artists to capture

in vivid imagnation, 

scenarios ahead of time,

ahead of others' vision.

They are at the frontline  

before the Armageddon.

with colors, brush and pen 

into the night 'til dawn.~

Past lesson on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air)

with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday [www.pbs.gov.ph]