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Poem: “If Not to Hell”

by on Feb 23, 2012 in Poetry
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If Not to Hell

Suppose that God had let them stay
In Paradise for one more day,
No sword of fire at the wall
For their betrayal and downfall

To see one day and then the next
Development of intellect,
Plow and harrow and the seed,
The pulling out of Eden’s weeds

The felling of the tree of life
A house for Adam and his wife,
Lumber made of good and evil
To build a barn and feed the devil

Smoke and coal and slag of lead,
Euphrates tunneled from its bed
That on the newly crumbled fields
They plant their factories of steel

Armies mustered then deployed,
The New Jerusalem destroyed
And more Jerusalems to come
By clashings of plutonium

Did the Lord God not foresee
What trouble there would never be
In Paradise if he expelled
Them to the world if not to hell?

Pavel
March 26, 2011


Pavel Chichikov is a Washington DC-based poet and photographer. He has written for both the secular and the Catholic press on issues as diverse as Russian nuclear weapons systems, Olympic athletes, and miracles. His books include From Here to Babylon: Poems by Pavel Chichikov,  Lion Sun: Poems by Pavel Chichikov, Mysteries and Stations in the Manner of Ignatius, and Animal Kingdom. Pavel may be heard reading his works on catholicradiointernational.com and on pavelreads.com. His poetry regularly appears on "The Poetry of Pavel Chichikov."