A deathly silence beneath the cold tin drum,
The enveloping shroud that kissed the haunted
Air, untold billions that rained their crimson
Rain on callous ground, their bones bereft
Of white, clock by clock, burning the soul’s soft
Flaxen tallow; the last Mohican child, the last
Gazan widow tore, and the last napalm strike
That bore a hole and rent the world; 9 East 71st:
A maid to be sacrificed, unending was
The dark, her tears cascading like flickering
Pearls of naked dew – unborn the ruthless
Raider; an azure chalice, adamantine spires
That clove the zone of sacred sallows, their
Fangs inexorable, insensate pounding in
The brain; cruel gold glimmering upon the
Wicked and the damned – wraiths in minks and
Diamonds – the primordial shadow; goblins
That crawled from beneath the dank and murky
Depths – they whose god was power – Leviathan
Groaning, betwixt the silence and the night