Satan & the Acolyte (poem)
March 26, 2008 | Poetry
i.
Awash in lava, Satan rose
the devil’s will he would impose;
With hooves and claws and smoky charm;
approached young prefect so disarmed
In baratone and caustic phrase
bathed shy holy man in praise
smothering with evil heat
Satan did so take a seat;
Rapping jaundiced nails so
Prince of Darkness’ words did flow.
ii.
“Eons pass and I grow bored
and wish sweet covenant with my lord
End this aching, spinning fall!
Face the light! I feel the call!
Demons, shadows, wyverns, ghouls
these minions mine just petty fools;
Pray tell me priest how I ascend
let God give me more glorious end;
My underworld is overstayed
and even devil’s nerves do fray.
iii.
“Crawl forth shall I, then so wait?
Rattling St. Peter’s gates?
Drink the river Styx bone dry
and piss a holy water rye?
Or cram me inside velvet box
confess until you passed of shock?
Of slaughtered nuns, of batallion’s greed
of collegiate lust, of long-spilled seed?
As molten hardens, my pennance waits;
Now, may I stride through pearly gates?”
iv.
Steam scalded soft on prefect’s face
as devil kept his chatty pace;
An acolyte’s deep patience tried
with folded hands and quiet sighs;
And Satan’s missive rolled long hours
babbling of wealth and power
of all the things he would recant
for the audience that God would grant;
Then devil paused, vacuumed the air
and prefect interrupted there
v.
“That Satan sits before me, oh!
God’s will, indeed, for you to show;
And God’s will you show in this confession
for all the violence aforementioned;
Still, I am but one weak man
in greater service to God’s plan;
Believers wishing, praying so
your crimson influence would surely go;
And here you are, as if to say
‘Priest! Here is your lucky day!
vi.
“Yet I know better, weak from might
there can be no dark without the light!
As humans carry wounds and scars
darkness is what gives us stars;
the lunar days, a shadow’s trail
in light success, in darkness, fail;
For Days now roiling in your words …
some convincing … lines were blurred;
But calmed I am with God’s peace
now miles away from your fleece.
vii.
“So, to your underworld return
where those who sin would quickly burn;
Preside ’till doom your kingdom faux
with your wyverns, demons … go!
Take the hubris, take the lies
which all god-fearing men despise;
Find in me faith long-since steeled
now before you, devil, revealed;
Your rhetoric we do abate
and keep you from those pearly gates!”
viii.
Satan slipped a silent smirk
prefect unfooled by devil’s work;
Rose his body thirty feet
hooves and claws and rotting meat;
Turned to walk toward heated pit
laughed and groused before he spit:
“This test is ended, another comes
until then, priest, you leave me glum
Denying me repentance sought
your soul is damned, in hell … you’ll rot!”
ix.
And thus his final caustic phrase
set the holy ground ablaze
Charm still in tact, in full control
Satan stomped back to his hole;
As Lava flowed at prefect’s feet
all was cooled by breezes sweet;
Later returned to See’s soft den
Priest mulls it over now and then
To stop the fall or raise the light …
Not a battle he would fight.
