I stood, with the heavens on my shoulder.
If I could get a man to look up
The earth should be saved.
However, I had committed offenses
Against man, and as the preacher
Does, I held above me the pillars of the earth.
The mountainous daggers above me
The sinner's abyss below me.

I, I stood with the heavens upon my shoulder.
"Look up! Look up! There is a God,
"There are His angels, and His Cherubim
"And his Seraphim, and His Archangels,
"And Messengers, and His Nethanim,
"And Cherubs, and those sleeping in the grave.
"There is a world beyond our own.
"If you'd just look up,
"And unburden the heavens from my shoulder
"And hold them with me
"The earth might be saved."

The men stood, saying, "There are no heavens.
"There is only the earth.
"The stars are falling,
"But we do not perceive them.
"The heavens are shaking,
"But we do not want them to be.
"Terrible misfortune has come upon us all
"Yet we, we wish to live like we always had.
"Believing in great mysteries about ourselves.
"For we are too preoccupied with the things of this world
"To even look up, and see the stars have fallen.
"To even look out, and see the seas are raging
"Over their perpetual bounds."

I looked upon them.
"Men, men, countrymen,
"Do you not see that I alone bear the pillars of the Earth?
"Do you not see that I alone bear the heavens on my shoulder?
"You have taken the Gorgon's head
"And have petrified me.
"For I can but stand, and ache, and stiffen my nape
"Against an unwise generation as yourselves.
"You do not see the disasters among you,
"You deny the glorious reward on high?
"What, what do you seek?
"If I alone bear the heavens on my shoulder,
"And you do not look up,
"It will come crashing down on all flesh,
"And I will but be a grain of sand
"Weighed in the measure.
"It would all fail,
"And I will be dead, and you so with me."

They say then,
"The sky is falling, says the preacher.
"Has he not always said this
"From days of old?
"Has the sky fallen?
"No, I say it hasn't."

To wit, the preacher gave one last breath
One last desperate straight of his back
And bore those heavens strong.
Then, he collapsed under the weight of the heavens.
The men stood in awe,

"Has the Christian Preacher fallen under 
"The weight of his own prophecies?
"None of his ill foreboding came true."

There came a voice thunderous from heaven,
"Love has departed from the earth.
"Men, seeking to be like the beasts
"Have succumbed to their primordial pleasures.
"Thus, your own hell will be by your own hands
"That none, for a thousand generations,
"Shall know what love is,
"Or know what it is to have peace.
"None shall know what it is to have joy
"Or even know that there is a God.
"This preacher has come to be with good men
"And gracious women,
"Who have all suffered,
"But none so bad as the tyranny
"Man had created when he said to God,
"'Depart, I never knew you.'
"Man wishes for God to depart,
"God shall depart, and all the good things
"With Him, while this preacher sleeps,
"And shares in conjugal vows with his Creator."