JOHN J. BRUGALETTA - THE BEGINNING AND THE END

J​ohn J. Brugaletta has eight volumes of his poetry in print. He is Professor Emeritus at California State University, Fullerton, where he edited South Coast Poetry Journal for nearly ten years. He now lives on the northernmost redwood coast of California with his wife.

​THE BEGINNING AND THE END

When the Prime Mover let it be known                                          
that homo erectus was his sapient aim,                                          
an angelic committee voiced a moan,
urging that He, the world's Maker, disclaim
this late averment, hinting it would taint
the universe without some taut restraint.
 
But the Omniscient would have none of it,
so loosed his wisdom unassailable
that the sole redeemer from the pit
be agape for himself, and amiable.
Thus were the jealous messengers abashed.
Satan grew his tail; his teeth he gnashed.
 
Our Earth obeyed its Master: in the oceans,
where gases vented from the floor, fish
fed on them, transitioning through the eons
to seals and apes, obeying the Father's wish.
(This intricate, entangled process grants
dubious sway to miscreants.)
 
This planet then acquired a race ensouled
who scoured their knowledge to determine why
omnipotence with benignity should scold
his offspring with ruin as if He wished they'd die.
They had scant means to see it was to test
whether their faith was worthy to be blest.
 
Now in our day a moiety has failed
the test, yet still maintain they've qualified.
And so "the son of perdition," who regaled
himself above the Lord, is pert and snide,
proclaiming he's superior to law,
for he'd invented lies to quell and awe.
 
The promised end has seemed at sundry times
to gesture its approach, yet stars remained,
though nations quaked. Perhaps, as pantomimes,
they shook the Ninevehs, who then regained
their faith. So goes relationship with God,
who will not, like the pagan Zeus, nod.