All the heavens became metallic gold.
The clouds dissipated into nothing.
My legs lost strength and I collapsed in awe.
Such defiance of nature cannot be!
Yet, the birds could not pass the barrier.
The world was encased in a dome of gold.
It shined well enough that we need no sun.
All the plants withered like elderly hands.
The people in town were in a frenzy.
They wanted to climb up there and get it.
They set to work to build up a tower.
A modern Tower of Babel for gold.
I cared nothing for this vain exercise.
Like the beasts in the field, I was mourning.
The shining golden sky signaled dark times.
This new heaven was a sarcophagus.
The cats and dogs walked together, heads down.
The serpents wrapped up each other for warmth.
The seas thickened and the fish could not breathe.
The owls could now turn their heads upside down.
It was a marvelous catastrophe!
The most beautiful ugliness of all!
No scripture, textbook, or thought can explain.
All the plants are crinkled up and brown now.
They never finished their Babel Tower.
One by one they all fell dead upon it.
I think of it as the Babel Tombstone.
Alone I ponder, feasting on the dead.
