Bastard Out of Oklahoma

I was there the day Chaos

was born: bastard out of Oklahoma.

the Great Plains breed these rag-tail

sons of bitches like shady businessmen

breed money-heavy bad deals, and

this deal could be the worst of them all.

Deception was his mother's name:

to all appearances sweet and mild,

cycling into another beginning,

bright and beautiful to behold

lady in waiting, waiting...impatient for lovers

to violate her and impregnate her,

filling her empty womb with savage life.

Heat was the first who came calling

and he enveloped her

neatly, trapping her in a tight

embrace from which she could not escape

and he tormented her body like an oppressive fever

and left her sweltering,

dripping with sweat.

It was then that Breeze

entered the scene, following

closely on the heels of Heat-

so they both shared her bed

stirring her passions. In this moment

her First Children were

born: white and chubby-cheeked.

smaller, subtler indications

of the greater labor to come

Afterward her next lovers: Energy and

Entropy crushed her beneath them

in a violent fury of assault

she cried out in protest and in pain

but they held her fast, penetrated her depths,

rising and thrusting,

thrusting and rising

in a swirling frenzy

to the place where her Children

rushed together and Amalgamated,

leveled off: flat, dark-skinned and boiling

and shuddering with intensity,

the rape nearly complete

The collective mind of Amalgamation

stirred. It rippled, crackled and seethed.

and Mother's ripe belly continued to swell

as the Amalgamation grew there 


along with the Bastard Child, who 
was waking slowly

from his slumber.
 Mother was nearly obliterated

by them all and they hung heavy and damp and brutal,

thick with ripening entropy

In the nether region of the Amalgamation

a furious tide could no longer be stemmed

and on the underside, as black-green Mammatus bubbled

with Energy, moisture-laden breasts to suckle a hungry beast,

at that moment

a vortex was forced open and

born into the world was Absolute Horror

a hideous breech birth, branching out

bleeding down from above

touching the tentative tendril of its

God-awful tail to earth, digging in with massive, clutching claws

beginning his short, violent life with a wail

that sounded as if booming

from the depths of Hades.

And thus the Bastard, Chaos, was born

and he bore many, many other names

as well: Apocalypse and Armageddon,

they called him Ahriman and Azhi Dahaka,

Kalki, the Destroyer, on his solemn steed

the snake of Midgard, rising from Ragnarok

poisonous and drunk from the blood of gods

and Charon, the boatman, ferrying death and

destruction, as icy-hard stones

rain down in torrents

to cover broken land like dead men’s eyes,

Celaeno, the dark one, and her evil sisters

swiftly churning, End-Of-All-Things and Judgement Day.

Chaos bore all of these names

and he bore them well, but not for long.

but while he reigned over the plains,

all things fell and were crushed before him...

plant, animal, bark and steel...

all were consumed by his ravenous maw,

masticated and spit out into the roiling air.

Even brick and concrete block

felt the pain of his passing.

and the people who were out of doors only

felt a growing uneasiness and heard

screaming thunder as he approached,

a rain-wrapped and terrible vision

they could not see.

For thirty minutes he rained down death

and it took another thirty for him to die,

the cycle closing down, a calming inward intake of breath

as Mother opened up her arms and the bastard

roped out and ascended back into her bosom,

becoming gray and harmless once more

waiting for another day, rife with heat and breeze,

energy and entropy, the four-corners that

make up the Alley Proper, to breed another

Bastard out of Oklahoma.