Deus Ex Machina

Grady McMurtry

11 March 1952

So has it come to this

The Hour of Peril

When Armageddon roils the storm of war

And kilted Mars bestrides a crumbling world

Of armor plated dragons belching flame,

Of slant winged harpies shading through a haze

Of incandescent fury

And of monstrous eggs

Ovum of a world gone mad with fear

And rationed thought

Such is the fate of gadget minded man

Who planted his faith in mechanistic thought

And sought no higher good than pleasure-pain

That now he finds his logic’s fatal flaw

In skew-wise reason

And his need for love

Is smothered in the coils of The Machine

Upon whose altar lies his lilted soul

Till Moloch’s triggered fingers arc the arms

That feed the flames

[11]