To and fro, through freeze and thaws

From zenith to nadir

The universal tug of war

Saw lines drawn in the sands appear

Divisions of 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 moonless beams 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 might 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

s 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



This 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 vestament, 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 light, a downward light

Bathed the snaking exodus

Through the wilderness

As the Aeons crept

Impressed with fresh bloodlust