—after Twain’s Letters from the Earth
When last we left them, one hundred years ago
God’s intercessors on earth, Michael and Gabriel
were looking for enough postage to send Satan
the news about the resentments of our species,
its tribalism and ancient stain of Jew-hatred,
not to mention bedridden Satan’s jealous complaint
of the always-ready female sex, or as Twain once put it
how well a candle fits the candlestick
until the heat of age causes the candle’s wilting.
Among other discoveries gotten by emails sifted
and received in Heaven, the invention of a little blue pill
filled Mike and Gabe with roaring laughs of rage
though no archangels write today with fountain pens
but Tweet or go befriending on Satan’s Facebook page.
Despite new technology a host of problems persist:
in place of harps and celestial choirs Heaven’s filled
with an orchestra of pounding synthesizers playing off key
and bad earthly advice on TikTok where Satan remains
a force of conversation. Nothing much has changed.
