The Nameless City

by Richard L. Tierney

copyright © 1984 by Richard L. Tierney
reprinted by permission of Richard L. Tierney

Into the Rub' al Khali's trackless sands
I wandered long beneath the starlit sky,
Until one night while yet the moon was high
I came to where the Nameless City stands.
It was as I had dreamed --- an ancient pile
Whose stones were older far than Babylon ---
Then came a wind, and from the swelling dawn
A brazen peal like Memnon on the Nile.

A madness took me and I dashed within.
To find dark altars carved with signs of doom;
I clambered down a stairwell black as sin
And found reptilian sleepers in their tomb;
A bronze door gaped, and through it came the glow
Of shining clouds that boiled from gulfs below.