by Jim Murdoch

Who can fathom the Spirit of the LORD? – Isa. 40:13

The world began ending a century ago.
More or less.
It was not, however, the epic battle we’d
been promised.
In fact, Armageddon proved to be a rather
squalid and
drawn out affair where both forces
entering the fray
clearly could not be arsed but a prophecy
is a prophecy
and we all know God’s dice are loaded.

They didn’t play to the crowd or put on
much of a show.
They simply stood there trading blows,
willing their
adversaries to fall down and stay down.
Fall down and stay down.
Fall down and stay down, for God’s sake.
It was not pretty.

They had all, of course, been at it
for millennia and
those who’d made it that far were
battle-scarred and
covered in blood and guts, so much
so no one was
all that sure who they were fighting
in the end and
simply tried to kill whoever was right
in front of them
before they did their best to kill them.

And over what? A bite out of some fruit.
Two bites
if we’re being pedantic. An apple they say.
Who knows?
What I do know is this: one bad apple is
all it takes.
You’d think the guy who created apples
could fathom that.

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Jim Murdoch lives down the road from where they filmed Gregory’s Girl which, for some odd reason, pleases him no end. He’s been writing poetry for fifty years for which he blames Larkin. Who probably blamed Hardy. Jim has published two books of poetry, a short story collection and four novels.

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