Catching Up

I met a friend after a little time,
I think it was just short two thousand years,
I knew him as a boy in Palestine
When it was ruled by Herod the Golden’s fears,
That from his tower decreed the death of sons,
Because of some vague prophesy he’d heard.
My friend was always with the lucky ones,
His family fled to Egypt, and absurd,
It turned out later, he’d been hailed the one
They sought for, after he had upped and gone.

How he’d changed, from dark-eyed Hebrew trier
Mild-mannered and meek, to great icon raised
White-skinned, blue-eyed, imperious messiah,
With powers about him, by wild cultists praised,
Not just a prophet no! Pushed ever higher
To the right hand of God, to Godhead’s self.

Still, I supposed I was myself quite changed,
Since that long childhood time in Galilee.
When passing through, I’d blown my pipes and ranged
Within nymphs and satyrs through their territory.
A Grecian whimsy I, a horned God, hooved
And with music ever satisfied, and if
A charge of lust be on me proved,
T’was so much less than Zeus’ was prone to ‘give’
Showering on willing and unwilling his High Seed.
It was no wonder that I shunned Olympus’s creed.

How I’ve changed now, my image mankind scorns
As devious angel flung from high in heaven
No longer Pan, but Satan bears my horns
Three sixes now for me, not holy seven,
And as belief bears blossoms, so its thorns
Pierce old friendships, until their blood is seen.

We parted somewhat coldly, still perhaps – after
Four thousand years we may have grown –
Into some forms that both can see as good.
The Lamb of God, the Horned Beast of the Wood.