To and fro, through freeze and thaws From zenith to nadir The universal tug of war Saw lines drawn in the sands appear Divisions for a promised land And Hell for those that dwelt Beneath a Pharaoh's granite hand Where death wed something else
Millennia swam passed Since the covened Ark Ran aground on Ararat...
But anew, tempered shadows grew Out of Midian, strewing fear Over verdant lawns, the resurgent storms Led a desert son to sear
From the palace orchard I espied... (Where swooning trees and moonbeams vied For the painted eye of the royal bride Whose gliding curves were deified) ...beyond Her grace where love would die Wretched destiny arrive
Back and forth the prophet came Riddled with a tongue of plagues That would render mighty Egypt lame If the rage of God stayed unassuaged... I listened with a heavy heart But unveiled to the threats This Hebrew in a jackal's mask Would dredge into effect
Thenceforth the Nile reddened As if Set stretched His hand To beset the damned
And bruised with flies The skies grew leadened
But these miracles, feared Were all but reared By nature, whose law alone Stood that revered
Thus hysteria passed, but still the mark Of Yahveh burned on in the dark
One final time, on the steps to the shrine Of Thoth, I twined with fate "Let my people go", "Still my word is no" "Then Death shall be the deciding plague"
Since the crimes divine I left behind I'd warred with every tribe that plied In holy vestment, but with time Bored sore of clawing what was mine I laid my bones and made my throne With a view to paradise
Thenceforth the heavens deafened As if great beasts Were unleashed to feast on man And with carrion span Michael was weaponed
To descend with scorn A dark reform Through Pi-Ramses Skinning mine and Her firstborn
Thus suspiria passed each sacred mark Of Yahveh, bleeding in the dark
With nauseous dawn, a cry, forlorn Unified from plazas deep The prophet's curse Far worse had worked To wrest the war in me from sleep
Drowned in night, a downward light Bathed the snaking exodus Through the wilderness As the Aeons crept Impressed with fresh bloodlust