Goddo & Me... Poem by David Lewis Paget

‘He slept through the Paleozoic Age,
He yawned through Neanderthal Man,
When dinosaurs walked, he was fixing a hole
In the floor of the Sea of Japan,
When Lincoln was making your favourite speech
He was out with a spanner, near Mars,
Adjusting some angle, inclined to the sun,
And admiring his favourite Stars.’

‘It was fun in those days, when he used to display
An amazing addiction to Math,
His Geometry, angles, and parallel spangles
He’d scatter whilst running his bath;
His compass, divider and measuring tools
I would hide, with the keys to his locks,
When questioned, he’d say that he’d need them today
For precessing the Equinox.’

‘I never thought much of mechanical things,
I left all that headwork to him,
I wanted some other distraction for me
So he gave me Original Sin;
He made me an Adam, then added an Eve
And he left me to play – (on my terms) :
I sent them an Avatar Serpent to tempt,
And an apple, corrupted with worms.’

‘He left me alone for a while, I suppose,
While adjusting Orion, its Belt,
For thousands of years I played havoc with those
Who thought Eve was spelt Evil – Misspelt!
The trouble began when he came back again
And he saw what I’d done to his art,
That stuff about tempting his son, I declare
It was innocent fun - Cross my heart! ’

‘Now lately he seems to be old, and he’s tired
And he sleeps while the engine goes round,
When he wakes and he knuckles his rheumy old eyes,
I just tell him the planet is sound.
But cyclones and earthquakes and floodings and droughts
Are my special pet projects, you see;
I hate to be bored, and it’s only good sport
For the likes of old Goddo and me.’

29 November 2007