He was the one the serpents went to
And the fish and the honeybees
When their sheen had lost their gloss
Or glimmer and their skin
Had lost their sheen.
Laughing he would spruce them up
Joking all the way: he’d tell the tiger
Or the elephant or man, sometimes the shark
To brush twice a day, maybe even floss
As if there were a chance of decay.
His merry voice rang through the glade
As all of creation rejoiced in Edenic life
Until a rebel came to take revenge on God
Having tried and failed His rule to usurp
And on earth there would be hell to pay.
It wasn’t easy, it took time and craft
For the fiend to find a shape to tempt,
And a fruit to entice, and a mistrust of God
To suggest to the listening ear that accepted
The lie and broke his bond with God.
Many things happened to the earth at large
The devil being here to stay: but worst of all
The one who had once roamed the earth laughing
Now wore a black hood and a sickle for spreading
Death and disease and decay.
No longer a smile
No longer sweet cheer
No longer a delight
And a merry glint of the eye
Now he wears the mask of gravitas
Whom man and beast fight to escape.
DailyPostPrompt: mask
This Jolly Beggar 