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Falling like angels
cast out of a place in the past
perhaps heaven
or whatever it was
no doubt some serious hell

should we call ourselves Gabriel
appearing to some latter day Daniel

in some feverish dream
revealing specifics
beyond the tablets
the fine print of the Commandments
consoling him
with the 11th edict
Do not fuss and keep your own counsel
the way a lawyer would
to a client who couldn't afford to pay

it is doubtful that Daniel
feared the visions or the night
Lucifer had not yet been invented
Milton had not yet
penned that portrait of pride
and Satan was also far from Daniel
and when Gabriel came to
Muhammad
he said he was
reciting from a book
so for all of us
Christian and Muslim and Jew
the back story was written first
and read later
rewritten to the best
of the recollection of prophet
whether friend or foe
and repeated thereafter
to help us trade places
with the prophets
and hear the words they heard
for ourselves
that's the theory

somewhere between there and here
we wait to come home
and occasionally hear \Daniel
and occasionally die
before we are heard

still we cast off
the next messenger
before we finish the sweater
Image result for casting off sweater
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