Ra - Sungod Poem by Mary Champion

From Mercury to Eris;
you are the light of the worlds;
the star in our firmament;
the centre of our being;
sustainer and destroyer of life.
When you smile upon us
our spirits rise.
But when your face is clouded
a languor descends.
It is your power
that keeps the worlds on course,
faithful to their orbits.

Your names are legion:
Sol, Ra, Apollo, Helios
Freyr, Lugus, Surya.
Before the worlds were formed
you were.
You were the obvious deity
whose existence none could deny-
whose power is manifest.
The impartial judge,
bound by the implacable laws of physics.
And here it was that we lost the thread of reason.
We could not face the harsh reality-
that you are impervious to our prayers,
unmoved by our sacrifice and our suffering.
And so we engaged in desperate
rituals of death and denial,
trying to assuage an anger
you had no capacity to feel,
pleading for you to change
the laws that bind you
as tightly as they do us.

But you are a false God,
for, like ours,
your body is mortal
and is doomed to die.
In the darkness of our ignorance,
we were blinded by your light.
But now we can foretell the future
and prophesy your fate-
Red Giant;
White Dwarf.
You, like us, must answer this question-
is there life after death?
Will the Sun God rise again
ascending into a new Heaven
to shine on a new Earth?