Hello, I Am the Four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse, and I rode in without a sound
or a mutter from you. Daily the dead
rise up in protest, and we ride
beside them. Because I Am Become Death
is my name. Nice to meet you. You never thought
you’d make it to the end of the story, just watching
the stars fall like fruit in the wind
and the moon turn red as blood,
whatever you name me, something beyond
war and pestilence and famine.
After a year of the plague shouldn’t you
have watched for me on the sidelines?
Can you read my mind?
Death arrives on a pale horse,
just as the book said, and hell accompanies me.
Did you stop for me? Did you even look up
from your phone? Stop scrolling; the sky itself
scrolls up and the oceans boil from radioactive waste
and all around the dead are asking for revenge.
How did you really not see this coming?
Here’s a revelation for you:
there’s a voice calling in the wilderness.
Be ready. I am coming soon.