Rainbow Signs

Pale horse songs of a slow decline

Sideshow words if the songs don't mind

G-d gave Noah the rainbow sign

No more water, is the H-Bomb next time?

Pale horse vows in a grave (I-do-yes-definitely) reply

Smile for the camera at a 'church' nearby

Threw a mute curse at the Boise sky

For my fucked up Napoleon-of-St.-Helena-hairline

Black horse leaping when the frogs withdrew

The parable of the plums where the olives grew

Clouded rearrangement of sounds we knew:

An Idaho sunset for my own private Waterloo

Pale horse songs of a slow decline

Side show words if our moms don't mind:

Cloud gave no one a rainbow sign--

Six-point starred ink flag next time?

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ ה' אֶחָד     قل هو الله احد الله الصمد

With imperial crowns we were 'sent,'

Riding out conquest-bent

Daylight is breaking

Wielding the sanctified sword

For the army of the Scarecrow Lord

Daylight is breaking

Balancing scales at our feet

Measuring out two pounds of barley, six pounds of buckwheat

Beasts of the Battersea Shield

At the opening of the fourth seal

The sky, I'd been told

Would roll up like a scroll

As the mountains and islands moved from their place

And the sun would turn black

As a dead raven's back

But there'd be nowhere hide

From the Judge's face

After which message-less birds take flight without cause

To the silence they've heard in the absence of laws

Or imperial crowns: Unsent, unsigned--

The other night I dreamt I was finally out of college

In my own pair of sandals, I had turned into my father

Whistling our tune about the Rio Grande

Like an anchorite in June I took hold of my own hand

And started on the Abrahamic joke we knew

About apostrophes and pronouns and you-remember-who

"But let's keep that silly punchline between me and you

Little Haroon

And the man in the moon."