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