An Odd Little Message

On a blustery Sunday in May an odd little message came my way on a whispering wind from the west in the strangest code it was dressed Abel, Cain, Jacob, Esau, Samson, Delilah, it said Single or married, we're all cut down in the end Madame Curie, Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Christianity Science's gleaming Cross wreathed with rosaries Once the meaning I grasped, I inhaled to gasp when struck dead by Cleopatra Philopater's asp