SATAN’S PETITION

Once I Saw in a vision
Satan complaining to the Almighty:

‘Man, that handful of’ dust,
Is a firebrand, indeed.

Lean in soul, and fat in body,
Dressed in fancy clothes;

With a heart ebbing away;
Ripe and cunning in reason.

Thou knowest not,
The houris of heaven
Are sad at the thought
Of heaven’s desolation.

The men of politics
Have usurped my place forever;
And I am not needed
On the earth any more.’