The Sophistry of Prophecy

        when was there never famine, never war,
      no bloody battles fought for real estate
    with every nation harmonized in peace?

  when have the heavens paused like polished stone,
motionless across the fields of space,
  to pass a single year without a sign?

    what season never yielded plague nor blight,
      with all the divers cultures steeped in bounty,
        no bloody battles fought for real estate?

what age has seen the quaking earth hold still,
  her ever-changing contours locked in place?
    when have the heavens paused like polished stone?

      which hour never saw men gaunt with hunger
       nor ever shook men from their chosen path,
      with all the divers cultures steeped in bounty?

    when have conditions failed to vex the soul,
  and terrors slept enchanted with the grace
to pass a single year without a sign?

        what creed has never suffered purblind wrath,
      nor punished those who hold a different faith,
    nor ever shook men from their chosen path?

  where has the climate never loosed a storm?
what river never leapt beyond its base?
  when have the heavens paused like polished stone?

    what people never felt the touch of crime,
      no greed nor malice wasting human hearts,
        nor punished those who hold a different faith?

when have diviners ever granted sway,
  allowing humankind some minor space
    to pass a single year without a sign?

      since time began to crumble written thoughts,
        when was there never famine, never war,
          no greed nor malice wasting human hearts,
        with every nation harmonized in peace?

      was there a time impostors never sought
    to stage themselves as some important face?
  when have the heavens paused like polished stone,
to pass a single year without a sign?