Red Sky Dawning

Suffuse the clouds a rosy orange hue

And daub the buckled masonry in blood.

Behold the gougéd sky where Babel grew anew

And blossoms now a mushroom of ichor and mud.

   . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Red sky at night,

Flames burning bright.

Red sky in mourning,

No early warning.

   . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

See now, as in a fever dream,

Where the Pale Horseman reins, supreme.

A deathly pall lies all around

On this, the latest killing ground.

 * reworked and dedicated to Berenice Ingle (2023) *