Long ago, God’s children nine played a game.
What began in wonder, ended in shame.
“Come, all of us brothers and sisters nine,
Let us make a World of our own design.”
Standing with hands entwined, their game began:
They danced and sang and played and ran.
As they spun and whirled and twirled,
Before them appeared, in darkness: a World.
The first began:
“Our world is dark and hidden from our sight,
On it let shine from afar a bright light.
It shall blaze for a hundred million years,
Now let us shape our blank spheres.”
The second continued:
“On this world, barren and void as cold space,
I will place mountains that none could displace.
Towering monuments, mighty and tall.
For thousands of years hence, to never fall.”
The third:
“To this World I give water, brilliant blue,
In expansive seas and the morning dew.
To rain from above on this world so dry,
Falling from heaven, returning on high.”
The fourth:
“Dead and lifeless, cold and barren no more:
All flora and fields spring forth from Earth’s floor.
The trees shall become old and tall and great,
An equal in size they will long await.”
The fifth:
“To this world of peace I give caretakers,
Smallest of creatures, they shall tend the acres.
Of these, some shall their delicate wings beat,
And some shall walk upon ten thousand feet.”
The sixth:
“In these massive oceans, so vast and deep,
Shall swarm with silent life, never to sleep.
They will move through water with such a flow,
As the winds far above the depths do blow.”
The seventh:
“Dominion I give to the mighty beasts
of the lands, from horizons west to east.
Power and strength will be theirs forever,
Some large, some small, some foolish, some clever.”
The eighth:
“Now the feathered angels to soar above,
And keep watch over all, pure as a dove.
Envy of all, they will see far and clear.
Comprehending from above, the world’s seers.”
And then the ninth and youngest:
“I shall breathe life into a brand new race.
A will of his own, but our Father’s face.
And all the world, and all in it, are his,
Everything we made, everything that is.”
Then the Father:
“My youngest child, O what a fool you are!
Wild and careless, my sweetest morning star.
How could you have been so entirely blind
When you created that awful Mankind?”
“Could you not see the evil in his heart
That will drive him to tear the world apart?
As his body writhes and his teeth do gnash
All you have made this day will turn to ash.”
“Encircling the world of man from above
You shall watch him destroy Faith, Hope, and Love.
Think and weep deeply on your own mistake.
Try as you may, you can never unmake.”
“But someday mankind will burn at last
And we shall leave its horrors to the Past.
On this day, you to Heaven be returned,
When this day’s lesson is thoroughly learned.”
Fin