Twelve Quatrains Channeling Nostradamus

A great dark prince rises from the East
scattering his sleeping minions to the stars.
New worlds will be uncovered and flourish
by the precepts of an ancient text.

A message sealed in a long ship of steel
summons fierce invaders from realms afar.
Not words, not weapons, will deter their pillage,
and lands will be plundered over and again.

The reign of the Boar follows the reign of the Fox.
Fires burn from the narrow straits to Gibraltar.
No blade green or worthy branch will flourish
from the debris and ashes of unnamed graves.

Men of knowledge will turn the key of life
so blood of man mingles with beast and fowl.
Strange new species inhabit fertile lands,
their hybrid king acclaimed as a new Messiah.

Unseen vermin infest a once great nation
and plague winds carry disease far and near.
Cities will darken and fields lie barren.
Tomorrow's children must uncover the past.

Those of metal limb and metal countenance,
their minds aflame with flashes of light,
will rule an aged and acclaimed metropolis,
soon inhabited by none but their own.

She who survives a passage through darkness
offers learned counsel to a beleaguered lord.
The moon and stars will hold back the night
until a wise man welcomes the rising sun.

Noxious vapors foul the breath of life.
Polluted waters flood coastal lands.
Forced migrations, arms raised in anger.
All nations will know the devastation.

The greening of a sister world completed.
Distant colonies rebel against their masters.
Ships of war are launched for the long journey.
Profit to be gained after a just peace.

The rays of the sun shall be empowered
and wind will illuminate the night.
The downcast will wear robes of plenty
when land and sea are stripped of poison.

Immortality flows from an amber vial.
The night is shorn of its darkness.
The shadow of death shall not be reborn
except through lost fortune or acts of war.

When the hands of the clock are reversed,
history will be unraveled and sewn again.
All prophecy realized in eternal variation,
each variation a universe unto itself.

—Bruce Boston