Principium et finem
The beginning and the end

Conversation between the Gods was rife that night;

Everything must have a beginning and everything

Must have an end, even the lesser Gods know that,

Yet here they were sweating over the creation of a

New planet with no end of life pathway in sight. All

Gods had an opinion, and all Gods knew best, but

Not all Gods agreed, and thus godly caveats flew

Thick and fast through a heavenly haze of spiritual

Uncertainty. Creating planet Earth no problem at

All, but how to end it, limit its lifespan, terminate

Its being, undo the tangle of time, mourn its passing

Without the slightest hint of the hand of God. Truly

A godly brain-teaser and no mistake.

The wrath of God came up for consideration but

Met with little support when it was agreed Gods

Be kept out of it. Hours of wrangling followed

With lots of talk and little result; floods, frogs,

Earthquakes, Sun, wind, fire, storm, dinosaurs,

Plague, locusts, meteorites, colliding planets...

All got the thumbs down, nothing it seemed quite

Rang the chapel bell, until that is, the celebrated

God of misfortune and misery proposed a hybrid,

A composite being in the image of a God, a unique

Male creature with an exaggerated sense of self-

Importance, skilled in the art of political stupidity,

And crucially, caretaker of an absolute contempt

For the well-being of the world, and again crucially,

Lacking the power of a God.

A knock-out idea of which all Gods approved, but

Obviously a little more flesh on the bones would

Be required before godly consent could be granted.

Further and better particulars followed revealing

The outlines of a garden and the creation of a man,

Later to be joined by a woman. An original idea of

Great merit, perfect for Gods for whom a thousand

Years is one day, and one day a thousand years.

Absolute patience at the helm if you like, all the

Time in the world, coupled with the certainty that

By this unique and most novel agency; Earth’s end

Would most certainly come about in what the Gods

Like to call: the fullness of time.

And lo, it came to pass that the Garden of Eden

Project was duly proposed and seconded and with

A few tweaks here and there (a snake and an apple,

Symbolic in the final specification of a little reverse

Gene-editing), mankind came into being. Beautiful

Creatures possessed of much to their advantage, but

Some critically possessed of a certain flaw, known

To the Gods as The Adam Effect. Living, breathing,

Time bombs, flesh and blood incendiaries, sleepers,

Buried deep out of sight, but within earshot of their

Wake-up call, precisely what the Gods were looking

For: the perfect solution, a hidden glitch, a natural

Failing... All things must have a beginning, and all

Things must have an end, and thus, pleased with

Their work the Gods rested, safe in the knowledge

That all they now need do is sit back and wait for

The end to come.

 © Joseph G Dawson