Beauty in this Iron Age must turn, From fluid living rainbow shapes to torn, And sootened fragments, ashes in an urn, On whose gray surface runes are traced by a Norn, Who hopes to wake the Future to arise, In Phoenix-fashion, and to shine with rays, To blast the sight of modern men whose dyes, Of selfishness and lust have stained our days...
"Beauty in This Iron Age". Poem by Philip Jose Farmer, originally published in Orma McCormick and Nan Gerding "Starlanes: International Quarterly of Science Fiction Poetry", Issue 11 (Fall 1953); republished in Philip Jose Farmer "Pearls From Peoria" edited by Paul Spiteri, 2006.
