Part the third: the father's creed

toothed-wheel world unwinding

Hobbled gear in the engine of heaven.

See here,the secret library

beneath the pyramid

the spark plug embedded in stone

the clay jars filled with electricity and stale wine

here is the prophet of virginia beach

here is the fifth world

here is a jar filled with ashes

here is a stone calender stopwatch for humanity

silently ticking

here is a layer of black ash with bones beneath it
here is grease, and engines and steel

here is the map of the world-that-was,

the islands of the antarctic,the lost kingdoms

here is the map of the world-that-will-be

the tilted bowl of the lakes

spilling down, new york and los angeles

dreaming below the swollen ocean

here are saucers, buzz-sawing through the sky

the water teeming with lake monsters,

cryptozoological horrors and wonders

yeti and the hollow earth

in mass, say only this:

“lord I am not worthy to receive you

but only say the word and I shall be healed”

know this:the world will end,
the lakes will pour across
the center of america,
the cities are doomed
to devolve to beast-men,

to burn without ceasing

while planes drop from the sky like stunned birds

know this: I live here,

with my library of secrets,

my heart filled with monsters

on the lip of the lake,

the edge of the city

waiting on the word

waiting for an end