The Relic

The Relic

The Relic

The relic lay before them
Standing cold and stoic
At the bottom of a temple
As old as the Mesozoic

The 2 archaeologists
Stared in mesmeric wonder
This shrine was ancient
Older than any other

The carvings in the chamber
Told a story of the ages
Before Mans first step
Before the shamans and the sages

Humanoid creatures
Cities with rich tradition
Served a sleeping master
Steeped in superstition

Every few millennium
An unearthly sound was heard
The pictographs depicted
but the images were blurred

They squinted at the wall
Trying to decipher
The primordial message
carved by this survivor

Disaster on a scale
Humanity has not yet seen
Calamitous destruction  
Birthed the Paleocene

With goosebumps on their skin
The raiders touched the relic
And heard a ringing in their ears
That some would call angelic

The ringing pitched and yawned
Swallowing them whole
Their screams withheld against their will
As the ringing took its toll

Like a child flipping pages
Their minds shuffled and dissected
An unseen force browsed their thoughts
A noxious presence injected

It weighed the world and all who lived
If its time was nigh or not
Then as quickly as it came
The ringing - it just stopped.

The well-read men writhed
Maddened by what they saw
Faces with their likeness
Were now carved upon the wall

They fled that ancient temple
The relic standing cold
Waiting for the next age
When it may break the world.