THE RAT AND THE EUCHARIST
(Kapo!)

On the marble cliffs above the waves
Beneath the rising inferno of history
Exiled in the quickening twilight of salvation
Awake to the light of a colder consciousness
The decay and renewal of the blood of promise
A faith without meaning?
A discipline without justification?
Devoid of the fear of nothingness
Being born of nothingness
The great immaculate inhuman pulse
Behind the teeming carcass of false life
On the marble cliffs above the waves
Beneath the devouring inferno of history
Exiled in the threatening twilight of salvation
A hero turned traitor
A traitor turned hero
The assassin turned saint
Our patron saint of murder
Were these the last disciples of the lords of victory
Bound and gagged on the whirling horns of destiny
Gathering like ghosts at the broken altars of life
To prey where vermin have carried the plague?
Treachery and honur
Like the double blade of life itself
Passing with the sun from the shadows of the world
To fall to earth like so many shattered stars
The burnt out and petrified tears of eternity
On the marble cliffs above the waves
Beneath the dying inferno of history
Exiled in the fleeting twilight of salvation
Hailing the light of the colder consciousness
The renewal and the decay of the blood of promise


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