In the Year of the Comet

In the year of the comet
I was given a vision of things yet to be,
of dreadful portents in the evening sky
and revelations of collapsing time.

I saw starfish turning to slime,
losing their liquefied limbs
into puddles of malodorous ooze.

I saw demonic dogs,
frothing and foaming
and barking blasphemies;
I saw venomous cannibal crustaceans
swarming up from the ocean floors
to conquer the land.

I saw jumping spiders leaping to their deaths
and infestations of migratory fleas
causing evacuations of major cities.

And I looked into the clouds
above Lake Wallenstadt to see
Jesus and his prayerful mother
listening to the music of Lizt.