And the Antichrist disciple undrowned upon
The heavens, it collapsed upon the stars, and
Crawled out beneath the gutter; replete with
Guns and bloodhounds, the hunt was on for
Terrorists, although there were naught but
Phantoms in the night; vengeance was to be
Had amidst the specters and the brine. And the
Bombs rained down, and the carnage rained
Down, for the angels of death had come to
Ravage the defenseless; and the blood rained
Down, and the moon rained down, and those who
Were insane slaughtered those who knew not
Why; a yellow Star of David, hovering ghostlike
Across a blackened causeway, the fires of Al-
Aqsa, the shattered catacombs, an undrawn
Cay, the dawn unraveling; Cyclopes marauding
Over primeval sands – Iphigenia to be sacrificed.
An ambitious Mossad officer positively identifies
Himmler, Goebbles, and Hess, and summarily
Calls in airstrikes, obliterating the Ishkintna family,
The al-Qawlaq family, and the Abu al-Ouf family;
Hallowed hearth songs blotted out by a stoney
Hand. And Moses wept for the Jew that was, he
Who shunned the scabbard and donned the pitiless
Mask of war. Where do we go when the vanquished
Is reborn into the murderer? What becomes of the
Prairie when it has touched the bleeding sands? A
Wraith of Auschwitz calling, a taut snake wreathing,
A madman raving, cryptic shards scattered across
The ghastly plains – the bush faintly glimmering, azure
Relics cast down on gelid shores; a swastika searing
In a lake bereft of time, its reflection burning – a ghost
Of history. Until the hearse stood still, and naught
Remained but the crying of the lambs and a banished
Seraph, its soul thus spent, while the tree lay fallen
On the long and inexorable road to Pandemonium.