Monday, June 3, 2024

WORKING WITH ANGELS

 

One afternoon in mid-September, 1920 

God pulled from His coat pocket 

A handful of change, two matchbooks

And a small clockwork angel which He asked

If my Grandfather Joe could repair. "Of course,"

Said Joe, who could fix anything with gears.

"Come back in two days." Joe made the repair --

One of the cogs had a slightly bent tooth.

Time went by and God didn't return.

Joe occasionally put in the ghost of a dab of oil

And checked that the angel was still working;

It always was. It had rotors instead of wings.

After a few minutes it always returned to its drawer.

Azrael, a much larger angel, came by one day

Sent, Joe assumed, to pick up his clockwork kin

But he was there, it turned out, on other business entirely.

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