the sky split open like a wound,
the stars burned out in silence,
she stepped into the ruin,
bare throat bared to the ash of the colored night

the hounds of hell circled her
slowly upon the snow
eyes lit with the last fire of heaven
fangs sharp as prophecy
breath as hot as pit

she gave her body as scripture
blood as wine of the new age
bones as the alter they devoured
upon a feast to usher collapse

by dawn there was no dawn
only smoke and the echo of her name
drifting through the teeth of beasts
that had finished the world.