Silence Falls On Mecca’s Walls

And now, because I couldn’t turn up a copy of this online todayGoogle so rarely fails me these days, and ironically, once I had looked it up I was able to find a copy with a non-title search. when I wanted to refer to it during a heated discussion of US foreign policy, and I had to go pull out the book, I present:

Silence Falls On Mecca’s Walls

Silence falls on Mecca’s walls
And true believers turn to stone:
A granite wind from out the East
Bears the rattle of bone on bone,
And to the harlot of the priest
Comes one no man has ever known.

The black stars fall on Mecca’s wall,
The red stars gem the pallid night;
The yellow stars are hinged in grey
But Ammon-Hoteph’s stars are white.
Who weaves a web to hold at bay
The castled king of Mekmet’s light?

Darkness falls on Mecca’s walls.
The cressets glimmer in the gloom;
Along the cornices and groins
The scorpion weaves his trail of doom.
A woman bares her pulsing loins
To One within a shadowy room.

The star-dust falls on Mecca’s walls,
The bats’ wings flash in Mekmet’s face;
The lonely fanes rise black and stark.
What bought what Shape from what strange place,
Across the gulf of outer dark,
To span the void of cosmic space?

Silence falls on Mecca’s walls
Like mist from some fiend-haunted fen.
Stars, shuttles in a demon’s looms,
Weave over Mecca, dooms of men.
A woman laughs – and laughs again.

—Robert E. Howard

Compare and contrast with Billy Butts. Or, if you have less refined tastes, with the pop culture take.

Oh, and if you’re not down with Amon-Hoteph you can check out some background there too.