No One Listens to the Prophet (a poem)

The prophet travels through the mountains
Reading the desolate landscape for signs
She misses her family dearly
She had to leave them all behind

The prophet had to go on a great journey
And warn the people of coming dangers
Recently she’s begun to worry
Of her society’s rapid changes

The people have lapsed into sin
And we all know what happens next
The great flood will soon begin
And wipe everyone off the map

But the people don’t believe her
When she says peril is coming
The wise men used to defer to her
When prophecies she was discussing

So, the prophet continues to travel
And she hopes the people will listen
She knows how quickly things can unravel
If they don’t follow sacred traditions

(Photo by Alex Shutin on Unsplash)

Author’s Note: I’ve always been fascinated by prophets, shaman, and prophecies. This poem is probably a continuation of “Life of a Shaman,” a piece of flash fiction I recently wrote and shared. For whatever reason, I’ve always found prophets so cool and I feel like, as a modern culture, we’ve lost something by not having them anymore. True, people can say things that are “prophetic” or be “modern prophets,” but probably not in the same way as the ancients did it.