©2004 Harvey H. Warwick III

Now once there was a bloody fool
Who thought the devil was real cool:
A bad boy who broke every rule
And laughed aloud when he was cruel.
He liked to hang out with a crowd
That turned their music up real loud.
They were rebellious and proud
And did things that were not allowed.
They’d sit around and smoke their pipes
While at the world they all took swipes
And often aired their petty gripes
At namby-pamby do-good types.
They had no thought for useful things
But wanted all to live like kings.
They loved fine clothes and diamond rings
And wore tattoos of hornéd beings.
The fool thought this was all great fun
Until one day he met someone
Who said, “This kind of thing I’ve done.
There’s nothing new under the sun.
I’ve known this kind of crowd before
And find them all to be a bore.
I want to do a whole lot more,
So here’s the plan I have in store.
It’s much more fun than this, I swear.
I’ve got the gear. Let’s now prepare
To go and find the devil’s lair.
It’s deep inside the earth somewhere
Or so I’ve heard. Now let’s make haste
And not another minute waste.
Down underground I know he’d based;
A clue upon my map’s been placed.
Not very far from here, I’ve seen
The entrance to a deep ravine
That goes to where no one has been.
Who knows what clues down there we’ll glean
To lead us to his hiding place
In some dark subterranean base.
We’ve got to go! It’s now a race
To meet the old boy, face to face.”
Into the deep ravine they went
And followed after evil’s scent.
They walked along ‘til they were spent
And in a cave they pitched their tent,
Then laid, exhausted, on the ground.
Except for breathing, not a sound
Escaped their lips, for all around
Them silence everywhere was found.
Then in the darkness came a noise
Like nothing else on earth employs
Except an earthquake which destroys.
This sound awoke those foolish boys.
The cavern walls now opened wide
Revealing what lay deep inside.
The glow of lava they espied
And into it, they saw rocks slide.
The fool’s companion slipped and fell
Into that all-engulfing hell
As he himself now slid pell-mell,
And yet this tale he lived to tell
For though his chances looked quite slim
Before he reached the chasm’s brim
The Prince of Darkness, tall and grim
Stepped out, reached down and halted him.
“Oh thank you!” cried the fool with glee.
“Oh thank you, sir, for saving me.
Your friend forever will I be,”
Which made the devil slap his knee.
His laughter echoed through the caves.
He said, “I am not one who saves.
To meet me, no one ever craves;
I have no friends, but only slaves.”
He then produced a length of chain
Nor did its use he need explain.
Its purpose, to the fool, was plain:
To bind him tightly round with pain.
But ere this chain to him would fit
The air by grinding noise was split.
A fresh rockfall sealed off the pit.
The fool then turned and ran for it.
He raced on through the dark alone
Quite certain that he’d just been shown
A fate reserved to be his own
And thought, if only he had known!
He fell, and though he tried to scream
Found, when he rose, that it would seem
It all had been just like a dream:
He stood beside a mountain stream.
He’d made it back along the way
That led him to the light of day.
Though at a loss for words to say
There by the stream, he knelt to pray.
In an act of pure contrition
Freely, of his own volition
For his sins he asked remission.
His heart was cleansed and reconditioned.
He left the long road to perdition
And no more serves the devil’s mission
But now works for the competition
And helps fulfill the Great Commission!