In the Name of God

A fire was burning at the city's edge. It seeped into the underground and fed the twisted strands of passion, forthright in its zeal at first and then like starving roots content to feed upon the warmth of pabulum, of mindless glory in patria, even as the fatherland grew strong, consumed all insight held secure. A leader came that night (for day was too intense, too bright to bless the sleep of practiced dream) and priestlike, signed upon their heads the cross of victory and conquest— as the sheep he led heard him proclaim that war will not forsake the nations of the earth but gather them together in its flaming arms, and in the name of God. ~