And Satan Walked the Earth that Day

Poetry

A Thousand Dimensions

Originally published in Idle Thoughts in 2009 as After Job (pronounced Jobe) and is “a take” on the Book of Job in the Bible and under its old title Job ~ Lucifer: Salvation.

It imagines conversation is between Light and Darkness - rendered always as God and the devil or satan or Beelzebub. The powers of darkness are real. We all know that, even if we perceive this only by reference to human nature.

A single character? I just don’t buy that!

That would merely be the machinations of men’s minds down the centuries seeking to maintain control. But it makes a good story. It also teaches us much, even though I sometimes think those who eventually scribed the scroll of Job, might have allowed their imaginations to run away with the candle when it made a mad dash for the breeze in the darkened stony passage!

PART I

And tell Me.

What have you been doing?

This one knew when he

could not play god

but he’d stand his ground anyway...

Lucifer

The light bearer

Fallen.

Fallen?

No way.

Oh but yes.

Fallen and but for a time

allowed his pre-eminence,

his authority.

Not for the moment

did he slither through the grass

and keep the contours of the rocks

and hide in the crevices... ...

That comes later.

For now,

time, times

and time again

he can masquerade

even as a minister of righteousness

if the fancy takes him.

But here he keeps his place

Here he does not hold court,

he is not a king

or even a prince,

except of darkness.

I’ve been wandering to and fro

across the Universe...

This fallen angel

bristles with indignation

at the shower of derision,

loathing,

contempt even,

of the Host of Heaven.

Alone here,

he catches a brief and momentary

glimpse

of his eternal damnation.

Have you considered My servant...?’

He only worships You

because of what he has,

give me authority

and I will show You

what he really is,

I will lift up

his corrupted heart.

Very well.

But you shall not lift a finger

against him personally,

you shall not touch him... ...

PART II

And satan walked

the earth that day.

Black became white

White became black

Natural was unnatural

Unnatural revelled

in the cloak of naturalness.

The fallen host,

third all told,

did the bidding

of their master, stricken.

The index rose

The FTSE fell.

Like FDR’s elastic band,

the market boomed

and then went bust,

and thwacked a million

lives

and ransacked fifty million more... ...!

And satan walked the earth

with glee

observing the disorder,

the chaos

and counted the souls

he’d won in the process,

revered!

And he would break

the human spirit

and prove his kingship,

his absolute authority.

It may have been a match too far

to be thrice thwarted

by the Son of Man

but that was two millennia ago.

Mere humans would not

dare defy him,

everyone would bow the knee to him,

exalt him,

and declare him

‘The Most High’

... and even the thought of

assuming that title

convulsed him without warning,

and his fallen host

across the Milky Way

shrank back

dejected

– their lord and master - 

powerless! ... ...;

a fallen being,

a quivering wreck,

that only by His Grace

maintained his beauty

before the fall.

PART III

And satan walked the earth that day

… pitching sons against fathers

mothers against daughters

sibling rivalries now his speciality,

wars and insurrections

his elevenses!

Pitch religions against each other,

strike at modernity

with medieval viciousness,

behead Caucasians,

four-quarter rebellious Muslims

in four directions

from a standing start!

Bring down Flight 636;

overturn the

Herald of Free Enterprise.

Bomb the heart out of

Manchester

Enniskillen

Iraq

Baghdad

and Pakistan;

Paris,

and London and

Westminster bridge ... ...

Strike at Somalia,

provoke North Korea

whisper into the ears

of despotic generals

in the hours of the night

beneath mosquito nets

slumbering and slouching

on fat bellies,

then awakening;

issuing orders for a

spot of further ethnic cleansing.

Bring spite into households,

Bring death into schoolrooms,

Deliver innocents to corrupt officials

- who in turn -

release the guilty

hardened criminals

and see no wrong

in reversing the status quo.

PART IV

And satan walked the earth that day

through boardrooms

and stock exchanges

and watched the money markets

spiral out of men’s control

and into his control;

passing by cash machines

ripped out of walls,

and loitering on the gloryholes

of adjacent walls

of dark and dingy

derelict buildings.

Hallowed chambers

revisited,

politicians riding cash bonanzas,

running up expenses,

and blinded by his

incandescent but dirty luminous light.

He is the light

I AM THE LIGHT BEARER

he bellowed through the heavens;

‘you are the light bearer’

the fallen host

and benighted souls

fawned in shrieks,

bending the knee,

and bowing the neck.

This is mine!

All mine!

These are mine!

I am the ruler

of the universe... …

I will be like the

Most High... … … … … … 

that last, just a step too …

a convulsion again

no warning given,

spewing

venom, blood and guts

in endless torrent,

and shook in

epileptic rage.

Time was not his

and time was running out;

how could it be

that he would lose

all that he had created?

PART V

A Still Small Voice

whispered

and the Host of Heaven

more than the myriad

stars of Heaven

gave the

Glorious Proclamation.

‘Created? you are created!

you re-create distorted images,

the limit of your authority.

And even that is governed

By He Who is greater than you,

your Creator against Whom

you dared to rebel

and when time again thus passes

you shall be no more

but forever conscious

in oblivion.

you were light but now

are impenetrable darkness;

there is no advance for you

darkness by the very laws of nature

yes – your Creator – gives

way to Light.

you the light-bearer

dared to think you could

seize The Light?

You seized the Light

and fell to earth

like a lightning strike

and sealed your fate!!

Will we, His Creation,

Go with you?

Some yes

But many won’t.

… you demand to be recognised

as the bearer of light

to be The Light itself.

Such arrogance

catches even the very breath

of this incomprensible Multiverse

within this incredible UNIVERSE.

But you cannot create!

All you can do is to re-create

to copy, to mirror, to pretend.

But I know one Who can create;

And He has only to speak,

and it is!

“Let there be light

and there was light”

as it is written!

PART VI

And satan walked the earth

that day hell-bent on revenge

‘How dare His Word be uttered

In my presence – I, Lucifer the Light-bearer

the god of this world!’

The thought beat through

his created brain,

and so he wrought

havoc in recession;

banks crashed,

buildings toppled,

towers descended

and planes blew up.

Blackmailers abounded

Hackers quadrupled

Horrid people

Wicked people

Detestable people

wrought havoc

and held sway.

Cyber-warfare profligated

governments brought down,

elections thwarted and bent his way ... ...

Families smashed up furniture

for warmth

trading gold for a matchbox.

And In the tiny corner of the Kremlin

satan entered the mind of a man

and whispered

they say there will never

be war again in Europe.

Prove them wrong.

Unleash, invade,

kill and destroy.

Show no mercy.

Be my ever-so-faithful poodle.

And satan walked the earth

… from the southern States of the

USA

to the royal States of Australia

laying waste to Melbourne

and destroying Victoria.

And he revelled in

Black Friday

as stock markets crashed

and for his evening cocktail

took Black Saturday bushfires

in South Eastern Australia.

Outside time he raged across

the heavens

creating mayhem

disorder

murder and pillage.

PART VII

In China and India and now Nepal

In Katmandu

measuring 7.9 on the

Richter Scale

Then for good measure

stood astride Iran and Iraq

and split asunder

then blew up a Mosque

in Egypt for fun.

On Everest, he flicked his finger

Avalanches wiping out all in their path.

Such wanton destruction...

he shook the earth’s foundations

Accounts dried up

Debt management companies

multiplied by the hour

bonus and incentive schemes

piled ever more on

tortured souls of innocent debtors

creditors grew in hostility,

spite his natural way

of oiling up their dried-up consciences.

Dog eat dog was his order

of his day, his precursor,

his reason for existence ...

PART VIII

And satan walked the earth that day
 

and spit his horror

at righteous people

but covered himself on the rebound;

the heat shields of

faith, love and

unconditional kindness

he could not penetrate,

as debts were paid

without interest or repayment,

or creditors took payment in kind

to ease the burden

of those wrong-footed

by this ugly apparition

PART IX 

And satan walked the earth that day

and whispered misinterpretation

of hallowed Scriptures

into the ears of narrow-minded ministers,

communicants, sidesmen,

scribes, khalifs, imams, mullahs

and ayatollahs by the score.

PART X

And satan walked the earth that day

from Bosnia, Croatia

to Kosovo via Serbia;

to Georgia and Chechnya

Iraq

Iran

Afghanistan

and Syria

… that diamond

Ukraine

And then

his jewel in his crown

Jerusalem

back to his relentless struggle

on that day

in Aeons past

when he soothed

his words in Eden

‘you will not surely die!’

And Eve relented

succumbed his advances,

and learned the art of manipulation;

and then his greatest triumph of all

a family squabble.

Isaac against Ishmael

two brothers,

who would carry

their feud down the ages

and many millennia away.

Death, destruction and

endless familial rape

based upon nothing more

than allegory,

a non-existent happening.

PART XI

And satan walked the earth that day

his especial delight

myth and half-truth

interweaving

in such a way,

labyrinthine intrigue,

that silly minds then raised

to the hallowed utterances of Deity

and declared, for good measure,

to be the incontrovertible

word of a god …

And for those who mused

his new agenda

Fake News

and cast his net wide

without limit

and skewered the minds 

of guilty and innocent alike.

PART XII

And satan walked the earth that day

until with no warning summonsed

by Queen Esther

to attend the Court of the

Most High Ancient of Days...

his Creator

and he sensed the shadow

of that wicked Haman

stalking him.

The end was upon him

and in a momentary absence,

a loss of self-control,

he writhed through grass

and slithered over rockface

espied a crevice

wherein sat its occupant incubating

forked tongue lashed out

and anaconda-like

engulfed and slept

and sensed the nightmare

of endless conscious oblivion.

PART XIII

And satan awoke with a start,

his deity briefly restored

and entered the Chamber

but dared not look

at The Light

“And where have you been?”

‘Oh wandering to and fro

throughout the earth...’

“And have you considered

My servant...?”

he would not answer

rebellious

evil

the hourglass emptied

defeated ... ... ...

and on his belly

he departed... ...

Luciferian

And Lucifer stood before Them

A temporary Renewal,

invigorated,

breathing ...

Why am I here?

I rebelled against You

No.

In your thoughts and dreams

in your nightmares

you resisted Me

and sought to be like Me

It is understandable to be like Us

It is understandable to even usurp Us

Worry not

We do not destroy those

that We create

That is not in our nature

PART XIV

Lucifer, We are the Triune G-D

Three In One

You are as you always have been!

Use this brief sojourn

into die holle auf erden

to help humankind...

that is all that is required of you.

Salvation is assured

and way, way beyond 

Verständnis …

Our ways are beyond finding out

or even reasoning;

Our means are unique.

Embrace Life

Embrace Eternity

And Lucifer walked the earth that day

his Companion, Salvation

That nightmare now just a vicious

memory and which ended with

that awesome Proclamation

that resounded

through the Universe

way, way, way beyond

this tiny so-termed multiverse

IT IS FINISHED

Es ist vollbracht

C'est fini

Он закончил

يتم الانتهاء من ذلك

זה נגמר

यह समाप्त हो गया है

 
Ian Bradley Marshall

29 September 2024
All Rights Reserved
© 2024 Ian Bradley Marshall


LIVERPOOL

Composed 11 July 2009

Published by Spiderwize Idle Thoughts in September 2009

2009 Original Title Job ~ Lucifer: Salvation

2022 Title changed to the thrust of the piece ~ And Satan Walked the Earth that Day

Afterword

Written in Liverpool on 11 July 2009 and first published by Spiderwize UK in the first Anthology Idle Thoughts in  September 2009.

I revisited the poem on 17 May 2015 and again in 2019, approving its continuance, notwithstanding my anger with all religions in these very troubled 150 years.

In 2019, I reached my conclusion, thrashed out over many years of quiet deliberation, contemplation, study and aloneness, and yes, pain, angst, and sheer unmitigated dread, and, yes, prayer as well.

But the peace that followed is one I cannot describe to anyone, nor will attempt to.

This enabled me to conclude this harrowing piece with Part XIV.

The figure of satan, for me, personally, is allegorical. I have no doubts at all about what all religions perceive and report as the powers of darkness. That phenomenon is very real, very present, both here and in other dimensions.

Eden, Adam, Eve, Lucifer, the devil, satan, Beelzebub, hell, well, humankind has done well to provide explanations that seemed to be so obvious in the thousands of years over which they were written.

Today, however?

Well, that is for the individual.

Ian Bradley Marshall
2022-2024