Once Upon Perdition

The apostate looked out his window, and started to believe As genuflecting pylons, sent ramifications through the trees Chaos looked at reason, was it about to make a plea I see Satan’s raising an army or so the nihilists agreed The Crier rang his Leper bell, ‘our town’s a Godless apparition’ Least he filled hearts with envy, of a once dreaded condition Now the King prayed for calm, in another pagan act of contrition After his son died at birth, he had proscribed all religion Atheists came from all around, excommunication filled the air Roots now faced horizontal, trying to feed off despair Anxious to leave town, random leaves block civic square And steeplejacks are disorientated, from neglecting their repairs That hole’s not deep enough, winked the piper to the knave He could never resist a shortcut, even digging his own grave But the madness continued, hermits set fire each other’s caves Shedding light on the void, by burning alive it’s willing slaves And as the apocalypse gathered pace, populations slowly died Some genius came forward, a real madman in disguise Said we need a scapegoat, a dimwit, an ultimate sacrifice He was crucified for being too clever, they much preferred no advice And whilst writing this story, that apparently makes no sense The Queen was in her chambers, hanging herself from suspense Children butcher themselves gaily, having learned how to fence As for putting the fear of God into us, the wicked come crawling to repent So finally when heaven reopened, a total eclipse tried darken that day Never to see man overshadowed again, Sun went nova, vaporising all life away By David Kavanagh