Babel

Therefore is the name of it called Babel And still we stood and stared far down Into that ember-glowing town Which every shaft and shock of fate Had shorn into its base. Too late Came carelessly Serenity. Now torn and broken houses gaze On the rat-infested maze That once sent up rose-silver haze To mingle through eternity. The outlines, once so strongly wrought, Of city walls, are now a thought Or jest unto the dead who fought... Foundation for futurity. The shimmering sands where once there played Children with painted pail and spade Are drearly desolate, - afraid To meet Night's dark humanity, Whose silver cool remakes the dead, And lays no blame on any head For all the havoc, fire, and lead, That fell upon us suddenly. When all we came to know as good Gave ways to Evil's fiery flood, And monstrous myths of iron and blood Seem to obscure God's clarity. Deep sunk in sin, this tragic star Sinks deeper still, and wages war Against itself; strewn all the seas With victims of a world disease. - And we are left to drink the lees Of Babel's direful prophecy.