THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH

earth

Offer them anything they want
these riders and drivers: blacktop
safety in numbers, the open road

tumbrels with luxury as standard;
in a glissade of bull-bars and strident
horns the wheel turns, consumes planets.

air

A mordant archetype: He flies
burdened with souls, His scythe aloft
for a garnering of tall buildings.

Crossing ourselves, as we are bound
to, we say, in no mean fashion:
ZERO. NO OZONE, WAHHABI. NYX.

fire

This is terrific theatre-
autos da fe where martyrs flourish
and parade their instruments,

and strong men in cocoons of Kevlar
rise as one to consecrate
the Semtex agon of a boy.

water

From ARK to ARGOSY: the terms
and conditions of our passage
couched in ever-smaller fonts:

so it is that our stock dwindles:
the long banquet of oils and flesh
all finished as the oceans close.