The Interview Series V: Gabriel's Interview Poem by Ofentse Mercy Hajane

So! Son of men!
Do join us at our feastly table,
And lo, be filled with the sustenance that we have provided.
I do humbly welcome thee, and do offer a seat on which to recline.

(Pray, would thee have aught to fortify thyself before thine journey homeward?)

What a wondrous evening, yea?
Hast thee ever witnessed such beauty, son of men?
Behold, beyond the verdant tree and bush, the very earth doth glisten and twinkle like unto the stars of heaven.
I hear that thy mundane world hath not the like.
It is no great wonder, then, that our realm was mistakenly deemed a part of the celestial sphere by thy visitors...
And to us, the 'gods'.
Verily, thou art confounded by my enigmatic ways,
As thou dost gaze upon me with much amazement.
In thy legends, I am likened unto man,
But from those of my kind, thou hast heard of my disdain for thy kind.
Yet, I say thee nay, for both accounts are false.

Indeed, I do wish that thou couldst have beheld this place in its prime,
Ere our unity was sundered and our joy diminished.
It was... more holier of a ground to be esteemed.

Well, that matters not now,
for we must preserve and guard this realm at every cost,
lest what remain be devoured by destruction.
Yea, even if it means that I must slay thee this very instant.
O'... Cometh hither,
oh son of Adam,
Forsooth, I doth but jest with thee.

(Quaff,
O' son of men, this ye drink is the drink of the gods.
Never shalt thou taste its likeness again.)


Now, now, that may be all,
follow me along these well-trodden halls,
for time is fleeting and my lord requires my presence at this hour.
I pray thee hast touch not anything that hath not been appointed for thy perusal.
And if I may be so bold, thy scent is not to our liking...

Gaze to thy left, ken'st thou ye fellow?
Lo and behold, a Messiah of grand designs, borne of a maiden fair...
Or so we bid thee to believe.

Ah, those were the days indeed.
When thy kind revered us as gods,
the creators of thy species.
When thy mightiest would seek our aid in times of need.
And if he faltered, we unveil the prophet of the star and crescent moon.
Indeed,
we could have granted thee even more, hadst thou not nosed about in the forbidden fruit of knowledge.

I should have loved to impart unto thee the knowledge of all our inventions,
but alas,
we have not the luxury of idle speculation now...

Farewell, my dear friend.
May the remainder of thy life be blissful.

The chariot awaits thee son of men!
May we cross paths again, in the future near.

O.M Hajane