Palimpsest

Yeshuah is a palimpsest
scraped almost clean
a ghost of himself
no one but I
know what he said
or did
only what others say
he said
or did

The witnesses I carefully
eliminated
not one of his followers was there
when he died
not a one
The men had fled
the women were at a distance

The Barrabas episode?
total fabrication
the romans never engaged
in such nonsense
certainly not with the jews
and certainly not Pilate.

Nor would anyone
have had the temerity
to request of Pilate
Pilate!
the release of the body
of a common criminal
he had seen fit
to crucify.

at the end of the day
the body was taken from the cross
and thrown into hinnom
with the rest of the trash.

Dogs ate the corpse.

It was necessary
that I do that
that I might be freed
from my prison
and pursue my revenge
against those
who had imprisoned me

Father of lies
the seeker after smooth things
roman toady
saul

You people will believe
anything

Yeshuah and his brother
James
who was called The Just
the white bird
the fly in my ointment
Beelzebub
lord of the flies

In your modern times
it is called disinformation -
first
eliminate all the witnesses
then
destroy the documentation

who can then gainsay?

So I rewrote history
confabulated
confused
concocted
obfuscated.

Cui Bono?

I could not eliminate all the words
but I could change
the context
the setting
the meaning
use his very words
against him
make of him something
other than he was

A fiercely observant jew
who wanted the people
to return to the proper observance
of the law

He was certainly not
the messiah.
And would be appalled
that anyone
should think him so.

definitely not
antinomian.
And therefore my enemy
but is was not enough to merely destroy him
I also needed to destroy
his teaching.

And I have succeeded
beyond my wildest dreams.

Melchizedek

Melchizedek wanders
the Plain of Night
Blind as Gloucester
Mad as Lear

and this pleases me.

shall I play Edgar,
or Edmund?

Low how the mighty are fallen
you who blessed Avram
whose children
thought to imprison
el shaddai
in that temple
on that mountain

I whom El my father had banished
to that mountain
there in the desert
companion of boredom
Lord of Dust
Entertaining myself
with the voice of thunder
burning bushes
and ignorant shepherds
are easily impressed.

Melchizedek, Priest King
you who came before
it is said
In the beginning there was the word
the logos
and that was you
first begotten of eldest
before that
that afterthought
whom he sent
with the final seal

descendant of David and Solomon
to secure me forever
within the accursed ark

Shall I be the good child
who speaks truth to power
and is condemned
driven from the face of love?
or the evil child
who speaks the lies
his father king wants to hear?
Edmund or Edgar?

Regan, Goneril,
or Cordelia?

Melchezidek
Avram chosen of my father
who sleeps
that you blessed there at the door
the gate of the kingdom
how it pleased me
to drive you out
and steal your sight.

father has forgotten you.

but I have not.

Vision 6, The Tempest

Eldest sleeps before the fire.
Spinning Dreams.
Still as stone.

If you gaze through yellow flames
heat rising from redgold embers
that which you see on the other side
dances.

Flickering flames
light seeking heaven
woodtrapped souls
freed through fires gentle kiss.
There,
ancient dancing sunlight
captured
over a thousand summer days
ten thousand days
stored away for the winter
like blankets
in a sweet smelling
cedar chest,
our summer days of childhood
which we burnish in our minds
as we grow older,
are released.

Summer magic binds
Air and Water
by the spells within leaves
to make winter fires.

Air and Water bound together,
make fire.

Is it not odd
that stones made of sunlight
should be black as coal?

Eldest dreams,
dream thoughts become words,
and so make the world.

Words.

Spoken into the Great Silence.

And the Darkness.

The word is the thing,
and thus
the thing is the world.

And so the world was thus
spoken into being.
To speak is to make,
to name is to rule,
thusly
to take away the word,
is to destroy the rule,
and unmake the world.

The word is the thread
upon which
hangs the world.

So
shall we write them down?
Inscribe the word
within a book?
upon leaves
made of living things?
shall we place them within
a safe place?
Write them upon hearts?
Place them within souls?
Or hide them in a rotten bark
set adrift
upon the salty
storm tossed sea.

Salt tears lost
within the salty sea.

"What a trouble was I to you then!"

"Oh a cherbim thou wast that did preserve me!"

In the middle world,
here,
the dwelling place of men,
neither angels nor devils
partaking of the nature of both.
Here
between the earth buried roots
of the great tree
and
the great limbs and branches
which dwell in the heavens,
rises the trunk, the shaft,
spanning the gulf
between the world below
and the world above.

Shall we climb it?
Climb the great knotted trunk
of the world tree Yggdrasil
whose branches tossing
are the wind between the stars
Oak leaves tipped
with souls fire.

Shall we cry out in amazement?
Watch St Elmos fire
shimmer upon the crosstrees
the mast
the sails.

Ariel flamed blue amazement
and struck such fear into the Princes heart
that he may have cried

"Hell is empty and all the Devils here!"

As Miranda wept.

Salt tears lost
within a salty sea.

"I have done all, but for the love of thee,
only for the love of thee."

"We split! We split!"

And so all were lost.

Shall a brother plot
his brothers death?

Embers glow
with the light of the sun
and the sun burns
with the light
of the word
infalling forever
spins
towards the center.

So let us weave
our web of words
from these threads
finer
than thought itself.
Let us then weave
from them
an eternal tapestry
of finest work
in bright colors
or in shades of darkest night.

Let it be
a tale told by a mad man
filled with sound and fury
signifying
nothing.

Yet another mad king.
Subject of the Fates.
The Three Sisters.

Kings alone?

It is said that even the gods are subject
to the dictates of the three Daughters,
Sisters,
Fates.
the one who spins the thread,
the one who weaves the thread,
the one who cuts the thread.

Is even Eldest
who dreams the world
bound by the Fates?

Who shall choose then
whose life shall be the warp?
whose the weft?
Who gods.
Who devils.

Look!
There!
What do you see?

"There is wood enough within!"

 A wick is made of thread
and the threads make the wick
drawing the souls liquid upward
to the flame
to burn upon the air
giving light and life
even as it is destroyed.

Destroyed?
By no means!
Transformed!
The word itself declares,
"Nothing shall be created
nor destroyed,
only transformed".

"Full fathom five, my father lies
of his bones are corals made
these are pearls that were his eyes..."

And what does he see
with his new pearl eyes?

Undergoes some sea change
into something rich and strange.

And the other
the one who seeks
to unspeak the words,
to unwrite the text,
is he the child of?
Or scion?

A log shifts upon the hearth
by chance
within the hall
where Eldest sleeps
dreaming
his feet towards the fire
the doors locked and barred
from the souldeath which awaits outside
with the three
borne upon a dreaming barque
found stormtossed upon the Sea of Dreams .

"For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother..."

The ten thousand brazen shields
reflect the dancing fires light.
The ten thousand iron spearpoints flicker
bright as stars dancing in a winter dark sky.

An oaken log
shifts upon the hearth,
by chance,
there at the center of the Hall
rolls,
falls,
shatters into embers
yellow gold glowing
sparks scatter
like angry golden bees
in the eddying air
fly upward
through,
out,
the smoke eye gazing
into the nightdark
dreaming sky
the star dwelling firmament
above the great hall.

The three who wait
before the spell locked door
beyond the pales
with night pinioned Thought,
and sable pinioned Memory,
shoulder perched
ear whispering
upon she
of the golden eyes,
Priest and Watcher,
together
watch them dance
ever higher
scatter to the four winds

and disappear.

Dawn

caught in the spiderweb tracery

stone wrought orb weaver poetry

shadows cast by dark light with no source

two men sit below the altar

in the new standing cathedral

in the city of night

the great shadow rose window frames them

distorted

as if spun by a drunken spider

or one on LSD

bored scientists tested it that way

beneath inflected arches

shifting stresses

and vertical loads

outward and down

into the ground beneath

where the foundation reaches

down down down

all the way to

hell?

Sometimes there is a sound

a vibration

as if great hammers are pounding out

glowing slabs of strange metals

far far below.

thin smoke rises from still glowing embers
drifts slowly to the center of the labyrinth
condenses to a singularity,
disappears.

Fragments of the shattered doors

remnants
hang awry

on greatforged blackiron hinges
the embers

keep glowing watch

like small red eyes

fuming

tiny flecks of color

in this monochrome world

one by one

wink out.

The man in the cassock stirs

the other watches

as he watched through the long night

waiting for this

the lesser night

the city of night

now shines darkly

like ebony beneath a full moon

like burnished silver

reflecting a lesser darkness

which is not light

"He came down off the cross."

the man in the cassock speaks

he is sitting now

knees drawn to chest

puzzled

but not afraid

gazing at the great crucifix

hanging above the altar

a christ carved from darkness

gazes back

with dispassionate eyes

outside of suffering

not beyond,
but outside.

"Yes?"

"I was praying at the altar, when he spoke to me."

"Yes."

"What is this place?"

"It appears to be a cathedral."

"Appears to be?"

"This is a strange place, and things here are seldom as they appear...  Me... You... At the moment it appears to be a cathedral. That appears to be christ on his cross. This may change without warning."

"I see."

silence spins a thread,

casts it outward into the darkness.

Tracery of shadows

cast by stones

wrought of darkness

slides slowly sideways across the altar

as if for the lesser darkness
there was a moving source

in the empty sky.

They watch it move.

Silence casts another thread.

the man in the priests cassock

holds his hand before him

intently watching the shadow move

from finger

to finger
like a spider dancing

across his hand

looks up to the great window

sees there only lesser darkness.

The priest watches the shadows

the other watches the priest

stands, walks over to the priest

reaches out to touch his face

so fast the priest intercepts the hand

wrist lock and down

they both kneel now

facing each other.

In that contact

the watcher sees

through the priests eyes

hears through the priests ears

the figure of christ

standing before him

eyes black as the deepest pits of hell

blood staining the stairs beneath his wounded feet

flowing from his wounded wrists

running down his hands

dripping from his fingers

flowing from his pierced side
christ blood rains from him
spattering sounds

pooling at his feet

running down the stairs

"He spoke to you."

"Yes."

"But you did not see his face."

"I saw christ climb down from the cross."

"What did he say?"

"That he knew me, that he knew what I had done. That he knew I had taken life. Lives..."

Silence spins another thread

casts it free into the darkness.

"You were a soldier."

"Yes."

"No, more than that, you were trained to hunt and kill silently."

"Yes."

"The enemy."

"That's what they told me. The enemy."

"You were very good at it."

"Yes."

"And now you are a priest."

"Yes."

"Interesting."

The watcher looks at his hand

relaxes his arm.

the priest releases it.

another thread is cast into the darkness

"You have seen it? Him. What I saw. How?"

"It is my... curse... blessing... take your pick."

"You have seen him?"

"Only through the eyes of others."

"Eyes of others?"

"The dead, those whose souls he has taken."

Another thread is released into the darkness.

"Everyone else he has shown his face to has died. You are the first... survivor."

"Why would christ..."

"That's the question, but then he is not the christ. That was just the form he chose to take for you, and, I expect for the other priests."

"So I'm not the first priest, he's killed?"

"No and yes."

Another thread

"You are not the first priest, minister, preacher he's gone after, but you are the first survivor."

"Why?"

The watcher stands, turns away from the priest, the altar, walks slowly down the nave following the bloody footprints towards the shattered remnants of the great doors. Pauses for a moment, surveying the bloody footprints following the labyrinth to its center. The priest stands looking at the ebony christ on his black cross.

"He came down off the cross while we slept."

"Who?"

"Christ. See... the footprints."

"There's blood on the altar."

"Isn't there always blood on the altar?"

"Only at the moment of transubstantiation."

"The blessed host?"

"The flesh, the body."

"But he's back now."

"Did he speak to you?"

"Yes."

"What did he say?"

"I... don't remember."

"Huh."

"You don't believe me."

"Doesn't matter right now. I'm still trying to figure things out myself."

The watcher turns again towards the doorway.

A moment, a thread.

"Do you see the doors, what's left of them? there? He fled from you. You were something unexpected. He miscalculated perhaps."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I must be having some sort of flashback, some sort of PTSD thing. It's happened before. I'll probably wake up in the hospital or something."

"No, you're awake. Here."

"And where is here?"

"That... is a very good question. Were you shriven?"

"No... No."

"Interesting. Were you afraid?"

"When?"

"When christ came down off his cross and spoke to you?"

"For a moment, and then he asked me... something. And then I knew, I knew that he wasn't really christ, but something else. And then I thought of, of Mrs Kopeckni, and I think I said 'It was you.' and I... I think I closed my eyes, because I knew I was going to die, that he was going to... and I didn't care."

"Ah. I think I understand now. It feeds on fear and hate you see. It knows our shadows, the dark corners of our minds and how to exploit them so it can feed. It needed you to be afraid. Yes. Now I see why you survived. But I still don't know why it fled from you. Nor why it came here. It's never come here before... I don't think it's ever come here before... Surely I would have known if it had been here before."

"So why didn't it kill me? feed on me? Did god save me?"

"No. if god had saved you, you'd be in heaven. Or hell. Not here. Did you beg?"

"Beg?"

"For your life?"

The priest made a sound of disgust. "When I was a soldier I took lives, I would never beg to save my own."

"Yes... So, I see... I don't know why you're here, but I think you survived for one simple reason."

"What?"

"You were afraid, at first."

"Yes."

"And he fed on that, he wanted more. He always wants more. But somehow, at that very last moment, when you were certain you were about to die and accepted that, not only did you not beg, you did something else he did not expect."

"What?"

"You must have done something I think no one had ever done before. Or maybe hadn't ever done before. And it.. somehow it gave you power."

"Yes? What? What the hell did I do,? Or not do?"

"You ceased to be afraid."

In that sleep of death.

So he was on suicide watch?

Yeah, well, considerin the circumstances, it seemed like a good idea.

Maybe... Hard to know... Video? or 15 minute check in?

Well... we're supposed to do the 15 minute round, knock an talk, direct visual observation,  ya know? but we were short a couple of guys last night, called in sick. Ya know how it is....

Yeah I know, so it was just video, an the guy watchin the monitors? Sleepin? Went to take a leak?

No. No, he wasn't sleepin,  drinkin too much coffee to fall asleep, he was pullin a double shift, ya know? coverin for one of the guys who was out. Double time. Ka ching.... So he's watchin, an it looks like the guys asleep. Been asleep for a while, so he figures he can take a quick trip to the can.

Yeah, well coffee is like beer, ya don't buy it, ya rent it. So he goes off ta take a leak an when he comes back our boy has disappeared.

He didn't think he was gone first, the camera doesn't cover the whole room, see? there's spots ya can't see on the monitor.

No pan an tilt?

Costs extra.

It always does.

So anyways, he waits maybe a minute to see if he comes back into th picture, into camera range, maybe he's takin a leak too? an when he doesn't, he goes down to check on him, make sure he hasn't got himself inta trouble maybe. Not sure how, what with no belt or shoelaces, and nothin to hang from, but ya never know, we've lost a few creative types. But we ain't allowed ta lock em up naked....

Huh. No shit. Yeah, the lawyers wouldn't like that.

So he goes down an checks the cell and finds?

Nothin.

Nothin?

Rooms empty, no one there. So he calls it in, runs back to the observation post, hits the section lock down button. Then we lock down the whole shebang an start the routine. No one in, no one out, call back any vehicles.

The whole shebang.

The whole shebang.

And nothin?

Nothin. Hell, they even brought the dogs in...

And?

And nothin. Track from intake to the room. That's all. That's it.

And no visitors.

None, and no one in or out since shift change.

No one?

No one. Quiet night. Nothin for at least two hours before.

So now you decide to check the video.

Yeah, well, now it's gettin kinda spooky.

Cameras on the blocks and common areas?

Cameras everydamnwhere.

So, now, show me what you got.
That's it, lessee, and the timecode is? Oh there it is, top right.

yeah, we can put it in any of the corners  you want.

Nah, s'fine where it is. Lessee, 15 frames per second?

Yeah.

So, where does the excitement begin?

Well, he paces for a while, then sits on the bed. Looks like he's about to nod off, wakes up, gets off the bed.

Does this how many times?

Five times, like he's really fighting going to sleep.

Huh.

So here's the part that's just... That we can't explain...

OK, I'm watchin... What the fuck!? Sorry.

No problem, that's what we all said.

Back that up, yeah say two, three minutes. Ok, so there's our boy, sound asleep, been out for how long? Ninety minutes?

We think so. That's what it looks like on the video.

Tape or harddrive?

Harddrive.

Shit!

Yeah, it's... I don't know.

Damn.

Can you do frame advance?

Absolutely. See?

Back it up a couple of frames. Yeah, there ya go. OK now, one frame at a time.

Let's see, timecode 02:13:52:7, he's there,  52:8, he's there...
Next frame? 

52:9

Sonofabitch, he's gone. Sonofabitch... Where the hell did he go?

A Gnostic Gospel

What if the Gnostics were right?
What if the Orthodox were wrong?
What if yhwh is an evil being?
Deranged, deluded, depraved, defiled.
An accidental being, born of wisdom unknowing.

What if the waking world is the nightmare
and the nightmare reality?

Yaldabaoth against Sabaoth
Sabaoth, the God of War.
Lord of Death.
Drinker of Blood.
Murderer of beloved Children.
Tormentor of Fathers.
Hater of Women.
Lord of Hate.

Beelzebaal, lord of the Baals
Beelzebub, lord of the flies.
A hebrew pun!

We are not amused.

Wisdom alone has not the powers to defeat him.
Only the highest one has that power,
who has many names.
eldest
elyon
he who sleeps.

Beelzebub
Fear is his sword
his armor
his shield.

What if the christ
was a messenger from Sofia?
Who sought to keep yhwh
confined within the temple
to keep those who knew not the secrets
from getting too close
close enough for yhwh
to touch their minds
to mislead them into error
like he had hezekiah and josiah.

And saul of tarsus.

Deceive the beast and lose him in the desert,
was that moses' hope?
Chain him within the mount
and let him be forgotten,
was that solomons?

What happened in Babylon?
With what did ezra and nehemiah return?
All those years waiting, weeping,
there by the waters of Babylon
amongst the Court of Babylon
speaking with the wise of Babylon
learning from the wizards of Babylon
reading the stories of Babylon.

Who were they exactly, those priests, who returned from Babylon?
Memories of Sumer, Akkad.
What did the Persians, unknowing,
loose upon a weary world?

The thread is broken in many places
the various conflicting stories compiled
interpolated
edited
obscured
obfuscated.

Like tracks in the desert
you follow them until the wind blows,
and they vanish
in the wind.

Who slew Goliath?
David?
Or El-hannan.

How, and when, did Saul meet David?

Who or what did they bring back from Babylon?

Did they bring the evil one to Jerusalem from Babylon?
Or did they merely release an evil
that was already there.

Colloquy

They are the pillars
which uphold the world.
The ten righteous ones.
They deny me my rule.
They deny me my power.
So long as they live,
my victory is denied.

Shall we hunt them then?

We do hunt them.

the three
the seven
the ten 
the twelve.

First -
we must find them.
Sofia scatters them
randomly about.
first here,
then there.
She is wise,
but also clever.

How then shall we find them?

Patience.

Patience.

The key has been hidden.
The book has been hidden.
The word has been hidden.
The truth has been hidden.

How then shall we enter?

The temple has been destroyed.

Yes, but it cost you Saul.

And it cost them Peter.
Joshua, Yeshua, are they not one and the same?

I  don't understand.

You think I must first find the key,
to open the gate.

But the key is hidden.

True, true, the key is hidden.
And without the key, 
I cannot open the gate

And the three
the seven
the ten
the twelve
are they not the wall?

Joshua, Yeshua, are they not one and the same?

Joshua brought you to that place

Yes, that barren land, locked inside that box,
across the river, flowing water.

Yeshua bar Joseph, 
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
But who saved the people from my famine?

Joseph.

Yeshua bar Joseph,
or,
Yeshua bar Yhwh,
or,
Yeshua bar Nun.

So the stories go.

But I know the truth,
I always know the truth,
because I made up the stories.

The stories are yours.

Yes, the stories are mine. You see, lies work best when they are based in truth.

Still, there is the wall, and there is only one key to the gate, and it is hidden.

Yes

So how? How will you get the key?

Joshua, Yeshua, are they not one and the same?

But the key?

If one first destroys the wall,
one need not use,
the gate.

The Temple by any other name would smell as sweet.

Before solomon 
before the temple on the mount
there in jerusalem
where yhwh would dwell
in thick darkness

god of israel
or prisoner

There
where abdi heba had been
appointed to rule
all those years ago
writing to akhenaten
who read the notes
as he sat by a reflecting pool
in the cool of the evening
amidst the fragrant lotus blossoms
and the lilies
with his children at his feet
(for he was a loving father)
in his new desert city
there in the east
abdi heba, abdi heba, he would sigh
whining about his neighbors
and their disrespect to pharaoh
and their generally disreputable behavior

oh little jerusalem
garrison town
the back of beyond
a place of no import
and little value

for let us not forget
there was a time before yhwh
and his temple on the mount
many years
before yhwh dared
declare himself
the one god

many years when shaddai
wandered the desert
bound to the mountains of sinai
(by his fathers curse)
beyond which he dared not tread
having incurred the wrath of his father
elyon
husband and lover of asherah
who divided the world
between their many sons
the sons of elyon and asherah
allotting to each his bounds
and borders
(as is spoken of in deuteronomy)
then elyon rested
and his mind dwelt elsewhere
and his gaze became inward
and his thoughts deep

and so
sophia lost her way

so it was that
the sons of god found the daughters of men
fair to look upon
and so desired them
(was it not ever thus?)
siring then a race of giants
men of renown

but shaddai 
(who was not yet el nor yhwh)
did not desire
the daughters of men
desired not
the gifts of his father
nor the love of his mother
rather
shaddai desired
power
above all else
and over all others

so when he rebeled
elyon bound him to the mountain
there in the desert
alone.

There did shaddai brood 
upon how he would be revenged
upon his father
and his fathers creation
until one day he found a way
to loose the words
which bound him there
for his father slept
and the sons scattered to other places
other worlds
and the giants died 
and asherah? 
perhaps she took a different form,
or not.
and so shaddai was left
the one god
king of the mountain
who would be
king of the world

So freed
he descended upon egypt
like the plague

It is said that when vespasian
destroyed the temple in jerusalem
he had the stones shipped
to rome
bits and pieces
bits and pieces
where he used them to build
the coliseum
so the stones of the temple
where men had slaughtered animals
to feed an angry god
became the stones of the temple
where animals slaughtered
the children of men
to sate an angry crowd
The children of yhwhs jailors
the three pillars
the seven followers
the ten righteous men
and the twelve

for what is a temple
but a prison for a god
great as yhwh

If one cannot destroy ones enemies
then one must seek to find a way
to make ones enemies
destroy themselves.

Two men, upon The Great Bridge

What is this place?

I don't really know.

Two men stand on The Great Bridge, looking out across The City. There is a cold breeze blowing, but it is impossible to determine from which direction. The sky this time is burnt umber, the City sepia and grey.

Silence -

Time passing -

Am I dead?

No.

So at least this isn't hell....

Both men say "Ha."

Not hell, no. Maybe someplace worse. I don't know.

You know this place?

I guess. When I was a child I used to dream of it. At least I thought they were just dreams. It was much smaller then, it's grown over the years.

Time passing -

There has never been another person here before.

Never?

Almost never. When I was younger, I would just have thought I was dreaming you. Now? I don't know.

Time passing -

The Cathedral is new you see. It isn't something I would... I would dream. Have Dreamed. Thought of. Considered.

Not a fan of the church?

Never gave it much thought. One way or the other. It seemed... unnecessary to my life. Pointless really.
You don't feel like a priest.

No?

No. More like a soldier. Special Ops, SEAL, something like that. I've known a few of those, you... you have that... aura. confidence. Not very priest like at all.

Not even in the cassock?

No.

I was, for a while. Now I'm a soldier for christ.

Ha.

Old joke. -  How far does it go? The City.

Sometimes I think by now it must go on forever. When I... when it was just a dream, when it started, it was just a crossroad, a few buildings on the four corners, some lights. Back then sometimes I saw people. I thought they were people. I would run towards the buildings, but, I could never get there. They were always one street away. I don't remember when the people disappeared. I used to think they were people. Now I'm not so sure. Then the lights went away.

Time passing -

Mostly it's night. sometimes it's like now, not night, not day, maybe all grey, or brown. Never any real color.

The City of Night.

The City of Night.

Were you afraid?

Afraid?

When you saw... it?

Ah....

Time passing -

I was in the sanctuary. Approaching the altar, just checking things out. The neighborhood isn't the best.
There had been a... death in the sanctuary.

Ah. A desecration.

Yes. An elderly parishioner. It was brutal. I found the body.

Time passing -

The detectives said there are... criminals... psychopaths, that collect... they called them trophies.

Like some soldiers in Viet Nam and Afghanistan.

Like some soldiers in every war. When you're fighting, the line between sane and crazy can get a little blurry. Especially if you don't, can't, understand your enemy.

What did this, criminal, collect?

Eyes.

Ah.

From somewhere, it sounded like it might have been underground, far beneath them, beneath The Great Bridge, came a sound like great hammers pounding, forging a massive billet for an unknown purpose.

I don't know what that sound is. I suspect The City extends down beneath the surface for miles. But I've never found an entrance. Or awakened there. It might happen sometime. I don't know.

So you say I... we're, not in either hell or heaven? Purgatory? Limbo.

No one can pray us out of here if that's what you're asking. Lighting candles won't help.

It was a thought.

they smile.

Well then, I'll take your word for it that I'm not dead.

No, I think I can guarantee you're not dead... Yet.

That's a small comfort.

Very small.

Doggerel 2

Sofia touched a tree within the garden
which lies between the rivers to the west
where el shaddai the master of deception
would walk in the cool evenings for his rest

within the tree sofia planted wisdom
beginning the beginning of the end
a way for shaddai's slaves to find their freedom
for in those days the serpent was their friend

Oh shaddai yes your mother would destroy you
who realized her error far too late
that those who you created must adore you
or suffer at your hands a dreadful fate

While eldest sleeps you play the squire of gothos
with the souls of Aeons as your toys
petty vengeful jealous are you to those.
that which you can't create you must destroy.

On earth you dwelt concealed within thick darkness
when solomon had trapped you in his snare
almost escaped when josiah in his weakness
listened to your lies caught unaware

The romans burned your temple yes your prison
and from your bonds you managed to escape
You corrupted all the words of the new risen
condemning all mankind to a dark fate

But still the ten uphold the revelation
remember yet the true ancient of days
the three await, the twelve remaining hidden
for the chosen one to find a way

The three shall cross the plain beyond the city
the one shall find the key to loose the chain
within the book, the seal, beyond that country
the land of darkness, dry land without rain