Too late It is always too late To row back from the carnage wrought By the unfettered march of your own fucking hubris As gladly we build the pyres And heaped conceit upon conceit In a towering furnace fueled by vanity and scorn We watched the embers of rationality Spiral into the stained plateau of the sky Songs were sung And tributes were paid As the fires burned and the bodies were heaped We raised vast totems And eucharists of celebration To a new era of thought and worship From which there will be no deviance Banners unfurl across scarred stone Ice shines in the eyes of the guardians of a new credo Embers drift back to earth as chains Constricting... binding... Biting into pale skin Chafing to bloody sores As gladly we beg for more More pain - more punishment Rictus grins split broken lips that erupt blood CHoking us with the dorwning carmine finality.