The Morningstar
It’s a little known fact, but so they tell,
That the Devil loves astronomy.
And when he steps away from Hell,
Away from the caves of his citadel,
With their ceilings of monotony –
Then the one thing that he wants to see
Are stars in infinity.
Is it a part some evil scheme ?,
Or simply that the Devil, as well, can dream ?
I wonder if he can visit them ?
Or can he only gaze from Earth ?
I’m sure he understands each gem,
As much as the Star of Bethlehem,
And over aeons watched their birth
To their glorious end, and brought him mirth
When friendships were in dearth.
Has he lusted for their gleam ?,
Or has he simply been condemned to dream ?
The Bible doesn’t mention much,
Except as signs, or points of light.
Or else, Creation Week and such,
But science there is out of touch –
Like Joshua, needing time to smite,
Commands the Sun to halt its flight –
He knows that that ain’t right !
So is it to score one for his team ?,
Or simply cast away that crutch, and dream ?
There is surprisingly little astronomy in the Bible – there is the basic flat-Earth cosmology which both their smarter neighbours the Persians and the Greeks had already debunked, but not much stargazing it seems. There are numerous references to the Moon, but always in passing – none of them suggest anyone is actually looking at it. Job has mention of Arcturus (or Leo, or Ursa Major), Orion, the Pleiades, and the Chambers of the South (possibly the zodiac, or Centaurus and Crux), but oddly no mention of the very prominent Sirius or Cassiopeia. For a desert culture, you would think that those big skies would feature far more…
Rhyming Couplets 