I was there on the day that the Devil was kidnapped by God.

I wasn’t sure exactly which one it was

as they all look the same to me

but I know she had form as a hijacker and usurper of religions past

and now was after the biggest bruiser of the lot to aid in a deity war

that would confuse humanity.

 

Bundled into the back of a long black hearse,

I hid out of sight as the Devil kicked and cursed and bemoaned

his lack of true companions who might just give a stuff of the fact

that in time he would be found dead, handcuffed, bound and gagged

his sentence commuted from banishment to absolute death

as the latest hostile takeover would see another fallen angel sacked.

Would I have said a word if the positions were reversed?

For as a committed non-believer, I couldn’t believe my eyes

that the titanic struggle between good and evil

had taken a turn in which no Human would survive

for if the world is truly always good, where does that leave

the insurance companies and their random acts of God.

 

For every deity needs a bogie-man, an adversary in which drive the faithful

to their knees and not just have a world in which all is pure and dull.

The sound of the iron bell, muffled, out of use for there is no sin

to gossip about on the street corners and nothing to pray against,

all sanguine and standing tall, the seven deadly sins eradicated

in the swift motion of a contract killing.

Ian D. Hall 2015