July Anomalies A – Z: Little Horn

After the lion’s wings have been removed,
and the bear has eaten his fill of flesh,
after the leopard has been given authority to rule
comes the beast with iron teeth

                and ten horns.

And then another horn, a little horn
uprooting the horns before it,
Out of the ruins of ancient Rome
out of the boiling seas of humanity
comes the corniculum of destiny.

Charlemagne tried and failed;
Napoleon dreamt of things beyond his reach,
Il Duce, Nixon, Putin,
pretenders all,

but now comes the one
who will make war against the saints
with climate based weaponry
and electromagnetic radiation,
with genetic bombs
and Toynbee’s rejection of national sovereignty.

From chaos and keratin will emerge the New World Order

This is part of July Anomalies A-Z, a creative writing exercise and not intended to be an altogether accurate picture of the creature described above.