Southern Outpost ... Lachish, Israel, 587 BCE

Omniscient eyes upon us seem leering
Out from a darkness that dreadfully grows—
A deluge of darkness, dreadless, fearless,
Swallowing all as it easily goes.
This darkness fills the empyreal heights,
Its quietude the Negev's lonely plains.
Distant jackals alone are heard howling
Nocturnal omens and ghostly refrains.

The signal fires, once burning, now fade
Into the void of imperious night,
And all in oblivion's broad-sweeping raid
Fall to the Chaldean's rapacious might.