Sans Seraph.

This is the Wild West, young man
The down and under
The lone and dreary.
It is what it seems,
Says what it means:
B and R
C and L
The blunt and barren babble
That it tells

The Deuteronomic exactitudes
The flat and tearless platitudes
The hissing in Sinai
The slick and flightless words

Nail them to
That nailless tree
On that treeless peak
That smooth Babel
Then return and report:

The hornless ram will not be caught
Or cut
The hornless altar will not bleed
Or blossom

And when you are weary
Of walking in sand
Stand on the road
Thumb extended
And pray for the tumbleweeds

Stand on the road
Thumb extended
And pray for faith and friction
To snag an Arial Courier
Flying to the smoothless sun
Rayed with flame

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
********************************

To crack your heart and line your face
And tear your eyes and melt your fist
Into a cupping curve of grace
To hold the dirt, to catch the rain
To grow a tree,
A sure place for a jutting anchor--
A strong and seraphed T
With an excess of wings--
Four to hide you from the heat and
Two to fly you to the fire

That you may shout
Jagged words on ragged lips
That the coal burns through
That the light shines through

Oh! and why?
See and El!
The bright and blistered beauties
That they spell



Genesis 22:12-13
Leviticus 4:18
1 Samuel 1:24-28, 2:1-10 
Psalms 75:10
Psalms 112:9
Psalms 132:17
Isaiah 6:1-8
Isaiah 11:1
Isaiah 22:23-24
Isaiah 30:10
Jeremiah 17:1
Ezekiel 29:21
Daniel 7:7-8
Malachi 4:2
Luke 1:68-69