Mischief

In the beginning
God made physicists 
out of nothing at all.

"Now hold on" 
said the physicists, 
"that's against a law."

God,
having not yet made Newton, 
said nothing.

Then God made theologians 
and became man 
and joined them.

"Oh no" said the theologians,
"it's one thing or the other,
God or man."

God smiled
and passed the bread and wine.

Finally God made philosophers 
and died for them.

"We've got you there" 
said the philosophers.
"Immortals don't die—it's inconsistent!"

But God,
having anticipated this objection, 
got up,
packed away his shroud
and walked back into town to see his friends.

And then
just when he'd got them really interested, 
just when then they were running out of arguments, 
just when it looked like he'd put them straight 
once and for all,
God made disciples
and left.

But that's God for you.
Always full of surprises, 
never know what he won't do next. 
Wouldn't put it past him just about now
with the physicists, theologians and philosophers 
thinking they've almost worked it out 
to come back
and prove them wrong again -

even though 
it's the very last thing 
he's likely to do.

© Godfrey Rust

From the collection Welcome to the Real World
May be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes.
godfrey@wordsout.co.uk