Full of Eyes and Wings

Q. What are we to understand by the eyes and wings, which the beasts had?
A. Their eyes are a representation of light and knowledge, that is, they are full of knowledge; and their wings are a representation of power, to move, to act.
D&C 77:4-5

I.

A crimsoned altar,
an unblemished goat.
Its teats—moist with tender milk—
whence children first drew life,
consumed by anointed fire.

Unyoked innocence,
twirling as smoke.

How do you bear their cries?
The breadth of Eden’s kindness,
that once knit man to beast,
spent through blade,
basin, and blood.

II.

Slingstones shattering the sky.
Iridescent feathers, 
sapphire hymns, 
torn from heaven’s June—
hushed in tawny dust.

The boys’ mirth—
a black knife without hilt,
eviscerating.

Only ten, 
I turned away,
fleeing their cruel thirst.

III.

The ox, the fish, the furious lion, 
the trembling bird,
long pierced, hooked, 
broken, burned.
Now transfigured into burnished brass,
eagle-winged, heart of man.
Eyes before, within, and behind. 

The weeping of creatures vast,
from ten thousand worlds,
wiped clean
by the enthroned God-child.

Lightning,
burning coals of fire,
a sea of glass
stilled in gilded peace.