When they’re cloaked, they do seem so far apart.
But today, I saw them both seated
side by side; a birth and a death.
Different, yet same, when unsheathed.
And in the sacred, solemn hour,
down the corridors of death,
in a room with walls dark and grey,
we sat and held cold, feeble, tired hands.
The Devil came to church today
And he had a lot of sweet things to say
We jumped for joy seeing him standing ahead
Tall, dark and handsome in the fiery pulpit
With an arrogant knowing tilt to his head
He invoked upon us his sordid glory from hell’s pit
When the choir sang, he clapped his hands
And danced in ecstasy to the roaring bands
The congregation looked to him for salvation
And he preached his sublime message of damnation
He came prepared for a feast of our souls
And drenched us with unholy water from our heads to our soles
We were entranced by his seductive presence
And lifted our hands up to him to be filled with his essence
When we stood, he sat and when we sat, he stood
He’d come to freely give us our souls’ filling food.
He mesmerized us all
Children, women and men
And lured us in to take the final fall
And we all shouted loud choruses of ‘Amen’!
He beckoned to us to take that last step closer
And promised that all our sufferings would soon be over
He would fill up our empty purses
With blessings we now know to be curses
Again and again, he smirked in victory
Revelling in our self inflicted misery
And just as we were about to bow our heads in surrender
That soft soothing voice of the redeemer
Whispered long-forgotten psalms of the Father’s grace
Reminding us all of the eternal race
We were washed anew, free from shame
And sang in glory praising the name above all names
He came to Church this Sunday with his spirit high
But we stood firm and send him away with a resounding ‘Bye-Bye.’
Indeed we laughed out in scorn at lying Lucifer
And took back our salvation and our glorious crown
And we all wept with joy and sang out ‘Alleluia’!
Yes, the devil came to our little church, at the very outskirts of town
He came expecting victory but we stood and fought and robbed him of his ‘crown’!
© Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido (All rights reserved).
Juliet 'Kego's World of Floetry; Explore! Experience! Enjoy! 