our due

a very old spirit must come
and we will call him a new name
for if old god came 'round
we wouldn't recognize his voice;
like men forget hell and thirst for war;
just like war, we'll forget: he comes from within

the meek swallowed and scattered,
pyrrhic madmen soaked and somber'd,
shaman repairing rattles with new stories inside;
on grapes sworn from lips
and husbandsmen with beards drawn long once more,
that devil in us will have had his due

we'll name the age something external
a 'movement' led by a single madman;
any name but our own