God Poem by Madathil Rajendran Nair

The dilapidated atheist sat
Self-proclaimed rationalist
Fondling his smoky beard
Eyes myopic, looks haggard
Laboring with tons of knowledge
That loaded his swollen head
Case of intellectual encephalitis

A sign-board on his desk read
'There is no God' - the goddamned word
He said should be removed
From all dictionaries the kids read
So they grew up true rationalists
Excelled as great scientists

An untouched fat tome covered with dust
Adorned a corner of his desk
Oxford, Chambers, or Webster,
God knows whatever
Perhaps, a volume of the great Britannica
That carried knowledge without measure
By which he always swore
Except for that one unfortunate word
'God', which he was convinced
Shouldn't exist, for God doesn't exist

His life now almost expended
In negating sadly what he was convinced
Never ever existed
He was feared by the pious
None dared debate with him
Invincible he strode
Like Fagin of Dickens
Triumphant, villainous, grinning
Hands inserted in his trouser pockets

Till a guy, stupid in his eyes,
Shot a poser - why not identify
Other things that don't exist
And have them too prised
Away from the books children read

Fagin fumed with scorn
Dumb-ass, go ahead mention
Just one other thing that should be thrown
Into the bin with your unwanted icon

Nonchalant answered the stupid
Permanence is first in my list
Show me a thing that forever exists
In a universe where even stars perish
More such words then I can enlist

Caught on wrong foot, Fagin thought,
This dumb-ass he shouldn't underrate
Cautious now he explained
Permanence can remain
For it is just a concept, an antonym,
For the impermanence the world suffers

Heat and cold I can accept
Light and darkness as well,
Stupid rejoined, as antonyms,
For the pairs very much exist
So is the case with happiness
And all our unhappiness,
For both do we experience
How in the world, tell me, Sir,
Do you accept what doesn't exist
As antonym for a fact plaguing our midst?

What logic permits you
To accept non-existent impossibilities
Into your reasoning sensibilities
Like immortality and omniscience
Fullness and omnipotence
When all that you have for keeps
Is death, change, limitation and weakness?

And why does your maths
Yearn to embrace the impossible lass
Who is christened infinity
When all it has are numbers
Playing finitudinal chess
And counting pebbles like Newton said?

Fagin sat speechless
He knew he had to trash
With God, a lot of his erstwhile vocabulary
All the words the dumb-ass arrayed
Which he had shamelessly used
In his innumerable debates
With eminent adversaries

The simpleton closed the debate
Giving Fagin a parting kick
It is immortality against which you rue
Your time-bound mortality
As every change that occurs in time
Is seen against an unchanging screen
It is omniscience against which shines
Your silly knowledge and ignorance
And it is fullness that lights up
The falsity of your limited being
All your wants and inadequacies

Without the three you can't be
The world can't be
The three are non-different
And synonyms for the God you trash
As is permanence which you can't spot
And yet not do away with

The day this Truth is realized
Reckon you are no more you
The failing corpus, but one with God
Nay, there is nothing else then but God
Against Whom the world does seem
Afflicted by birth and death
Change, wants and ignorance
For which reason He is called
The Creator with the magic wand
Now tell me if you want God trashed
Mind you then you too are trashed

Fagin sat stroking his beard
A bruised ego licked its sores
A perennial malady for atheists
All confounded rationalists