The Skittish God

Have been tossing this poem around for some time now, but never got around to polishing it up. Anyway... thought I'd put it out there just to clear up my quota of drafts before I leave for India.

This started as a germ I thought up when reading the work of Steven Erikson. A twist on the relationship between a hypothetical (limited) god and its faithful, which I thought would make a grandiose, quirky poem. Check it out...

The Skittish God

Endless worlds, a vision stark
Tumbling past the edge of sight
A lifeless, sprawling, chaotic dark
In its midst a beacon alight

Spinning about its middling Sun
Its Moon, poor sentinel scarred
This pale blue unremarkable dot
Where unfold the eternal wars...

Dark and Light and all between
Life and Death's own hoary face
Chaos and Order hiss and keen
Good and Evil's constant race

Persons hide here midst Crowds
Here is Violence, here is Peace
Beauty gainsays Horrors loud
Faith and Knowledge trick and tease

And yet no more than a step beyond
In black cold blows a scorching wind
All is silent save the sound
Of the fiery wind's own murmuring

It's worshippers adore, detractors boo
Priests and scholars on it opine
None yet fathom its nature true
The rabid mobs call it divine

So here it waits, this skittish 'god'
Sizzles and murmurs in despair
Warily eyeing that which it wrought
Contemplating its own death-snare

In creating the world it was enslaved
In giving it life it spent its seed
To cherishing our flame its all it gave
Scarce sensing what came of the deed

Billions now do seek and grow
Aim unknowing for its flimsy seat
Ages shall come and aeons will go
One day a rival will find its feet

A war in the heaven's! Chaos delights!
Order shall brook no compromise
The upstart then the incumbent fights
What will from the ashes rise?

This then, the creator's lot
Father, mother, victim of wrath
The eternal tale trundles on
Irrevocably on this tragic path

Knowing this must come to pass
In fear the creator stays away
The faithful bitter for a loving glance
Heartbreaking that it must stay scared!