More Anomalies A – Z: Nero

Beliar the great ruler, the king of this world, will descend, who hath ruled it since it came into being; yea, he will descend from his firmament in the likeness of a man, a lawless king, the slayer of his mother: who himself even this king will persecute the plant which the Twelve Apostles of the Beloved have planted … And at his word the sun will rise at night and he will make the moon to appear at the sixth hour. And all that he hath desired he will do in the world he will do, and he will speak like the Beloved and he will say: 'I am God and before me there has been none other.’ – The Ascension of Isaiah

Now is the predicted hour
when the beast prowls about the city streets
-and make no mistake, this is a beast-
though he but apes and jibes in the skins
of wild animals, his mind is bestial.
He is depraved, obscene.

Cruel and crazed with power
he bites and tears and stabs
at anyone and everyone.
Strangling, raping, burning,
singing – yes he sings
and thinks himself an artist.

Comets in the sky overhead
disturb and frighten him,
he fears they signal the death
of some person of importance,
yet he would burn through heavens
himself, bringing death and dissolution.

And if you are wise, if you have wisdom
count the number of his name
for he murdered his own mother,
this is true, but there is more;
it is the number of a beast
and the name of a man.

Go now, while it is dark.
Go now before he calls down fire from heaven,
before he causes the sun to rise in the night;
hide where you can.
Do not let yourself be discovered.