Midgard

(a waking dream)

 

I am on the second floor

Hell is quiet beneath

My Middle-Earth

While heaven rages above

Is that the war in heaven?

Is hell quiet now because it’s empty?

If so, the story goes

A third of heaven’s host

Will fall to occupy the deeper realm

With Satan as its ruler

The revenant of those who sought,

Sought what?

To take over?

Simply to protest?

To bargain for a will

Like that awarded humans?

 

We were your agents, Lord

Certainly, we would have managed

Better with a choice

In how to serve

A better talent might have been missed

A calling other than created

Sorry, it could happen

Might we have the chance

To find out who we are?

No?

That’s bitter

 

We are better than the rest

The scion of light says so

How must we, then, be heard?

Where shall we go that you might see?

There are the plains

Splayed by your fingers

We will practice farther below

Then emerge to tussle with the best

The ones loved more

We’ll find out who wins

If your lower creatures love us

Then you should withdraw into

Two-thirds of heaven left

More than enough

Since perfection

And the servile need

Nothing but a pin

Or a nail

 

C L Couch

 

 

Image by Moshe Harosh from Pixabay

(detail)