The Tower (2009)

Up, up and up and up it grows,
With spires great and proud;
Its shadow far and wide it throws,
By people’s fear and awe it rose,
Who stand below and cowed.

Up, up and up, it reaches higher,
Until it seems the sky
Is pierced in two by bricks and fire,
By bitumen, and one’s desire
Against the heavens to try.

The axis of a total power,
An empire of the world;
And never realm does it devour
Can quench the famine of that tower;
More conquest must be hurled.

Behold an army marching out;
Behold the slaves that army brings,
Enchained and wailing from the rout;
Now hear those slaughterous warriors shout,
“Hail Nimrod, king of kings!”

And Nimrod, high atop his walls,
Great hunter of the earth,
Looks on his armies, golden halls,
His toiling mass of nameless thralls,
And cannot sum their worth.

Beside him stands, with midnight sheen,
Dark onyx of his crown,
Proud Semiramis, orient queen,
Whose thirsting eyes will never glean
Enough to let them drown.

“My queen, this world is in my fist
And every nation quails
Against my armies to resist,
Such might is in this mortal wrist
That none alive curtails!

“And yet I am not satisfied,
My heart must still be fed;
It thunders with a godlike pride
And wails, ‘what god has ever died?’
What god has known the dread

“Of such an empire in his grip?
And yet no god will be
A banquet for the worms which slip
Within our tombs with eager lip
To taste nobility!”

Thus Nimrod cried with fearsome gaze
And loathed his feeble realm,
But hated more the sun’s free rays,
Which taunted him into a craze
By lighting every helm.

“Dread lord of earth and sea and air,
Have no more doubts and fears.
No god with you shall long compare;
We’ll make the very heavens despair
And break the celestial spheres!

“Behold this tower, spiralling,
Built up by countless hands
Subdued by you: it is your spring
To give the gods a mortal sting,
And vanquish heaven’s bands!

“Then all the universe must fall
Beneath your awful might;
The gods before your feet will crawl
And beg your mercy, but the pall
Of death shall steal their light!

“Then I shall be your ceaseless queen
And rule throughout the night,
As you the day will rule serene;
We’ll torment all who would demean
Our glory and our right!”

So Semiramis spoke her bent,
And all the heavens shook,
Foreboding some most ill event;
For heaven and earth, each malcontent,
The other cannot brook.

Then Nimrod, from his mighty tower,
Looks up and fiercely cries,
“Yes!  God himself will fear my power!
I’ll tear him down, his heart devour,
And throw him from the skies!

“The sun will set within my crown,
And shine on whom I may;
I’ll sear the airs, the fields I’ll brown,
This world will fear my scorching frown
And death itself obey!”

The king sends forth his bold command
To muster all his force,
As numberless as grains of sand,
Their marching shakes the very land
With chariot, man and horse.

Arriving with the Hunter’s Moon,
The earth his armies hide,
Unto the edge of vision strewn,
Such gold and jewels all festoon
And boast their deadly pride.

The eve before the king’s great war
He gazes over the plain,
And sees a falcon upward soar
As if to strike at heaven’s door –
Him nothing can contain!

But lo!  On silent wings there sweeps
The hooting bird of death,
And strikes the falcon as it steeps,
Then plummets with it to the deeps
While screeching out its breath!

Astonished, Nimrod staggers back
And stumbles on his throne,
A fear arises dim and black –
“And yet did not that hunter wrack
It’s prey as I my own?

“For Nimrod is the hunter king,
And full the Hunter’s Moon!
Good portents for what day will bring
When I will clip a godly wing
And make the heavens swoon!”

Anon that night commotion throws
The kingdom into fear –
The moon falls dark, yet faintly glows
With bloody hue, as if it knows
The morrow’s doom is near.

King Nimrod sees the moon as well
And shivers in his nerves,
But shouts, “Tomorrow I shall dwell
In heaven and the gods in hell,
As this false moon deserves!”

And so the night is spent by all
Beneath a fearsome moon
That lours with its bloody pall,
While time moves onward at a crawl;
All pray that dawn comes soon.

When light arises on the tower
The armies rouse and arm,
While Nimrod waits the proper hour
To launch his host, and heaven shower
With arrows, spears and harm.

Proud Semiramis rushes in
And falls before her lord:
“I dreamt this bastion strong wherein
We stand, that pierces heaven’s skin,
Collapsed as heaven roared!”

“My Queen, this omen, seeming ill,
Bodes well our victory!
For when I triumph, I shall spill
This spire and whatever hill
Might brave our regency!

“Now arm yourself – we go to war,
And make our doom today;
And either we the Elysian shore
Must win or suffer evermore;
All’s risked in one fell play.”

The trumpets blast the battle cry,
And Nimrod’s golden host
Uplift their standards in reply,
Their gallant banners waving high,
And ready for their boast.

The army glitters in the sun
Like waves upon the sea,
This army, never once outdone,
Which ever forced the foe to run,
Awaits the king’s decree.

A hundred thousand thousand spears
Unleash their furious sound,
Their mighty, conquering king appears,
A hundred thousand thousand cheers
Explode and shake the ground!

Then up and up and up they stride
With Nimrod and his queen
In front of all and full of pride;
Up, up and up and up they guide
Beyond the cloudy screen.

Up, up and up and up the tower
The mighty host does climb;
The ether shakes at such a power
While lightning shrieks and brimstones shower
To mark so great a crime.

Up, up and up they rashly march
Unto bright heaven’s gate,
And halt before a blazing arch
That makes their sin and hubris parch,
Despite their brimming hate.

Now Nimrod lifts his mighty sword
To signal the assault,
But silent dread overcomes the horde,
As groanings strange first stun their lord
And shake the lofty vault;

The groans increase, the air grows thick
And wailings start to rise
From out the soldiers, fallen sick
With terror as the mortared brick
Turns bloody to their eyes!

Then blasts rip upward from the plain,
A screaming, grinding squall:
“What’s that?  That jolt!”  “Explosions!” – “again!”
“Our weight –”  “Our weight!”  “It can’t sustain–”
“The tower – it breaks!”  “The wall!”

And mighty was their fall!