Poetry Tuesday: "The Archangels of America Retire"

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole the other day.  I was working on a poem idea about Gabriel, and I wondered about the other archangels.  I don't spend much time thinking about angels, and I didn't receive much schooling about this topic--hence, the internet search.

It will come as no surprise to you that there's some strange stuff out there that one finds when one launches a search with key terms like angels, archangels, and angel hierarchy.  I didn't find much information sponsored by academic organizations, but I didn't really expect to find much.  I was more surprised to find the amount of information from the fringes that I found.

My internet rambles reminded me of a poem about the Archangels of Destruction retiring.  I haven't looked at it in years, so I went to my files this morning.  I think it holds up well, and seems more relevant than when I wrote it years ago.



The Archangels of Destruction Retire



When the polar ice caps thaw,
the Archangels of Destruction consider
their career plans. Creation
has gotten out ahead of them.

Science and ancient hatreds collaborate
in new and more effective ways of death.
Each decade, a different continent deals
with genocide, each one more horrifying
than the last.

Pestilence, that ancient foe,
so ever-present as to seem friendly,
wraps the earth in swaddling clothes.

The specter of nuclear annihilation
haunts the dreams of children yet again.
Small countries lust for large weapons
and starve their civilians in service
to that vision.

With little for them to do,
the Archangels of Destruction change course.
They retire, and some decide to work on their golf
game. Others return to the angel school
and discover the pleasure of thundering
hymns. Most concentrate on the pleasures
of grandchildren and all the neglected
hobbies of the past: cooking and travel and friendships.