The Junior God looked from his place <br /> In the conning towers of heaven, <br />And he saw the world through the span of space <br /> Like a giant golf-ball driven. <br />And because he was bored, as some gods are, <br /> With high celestial mirth, <br />He clutched the reins of a shooting star, <br /> And he steered it down to earth. <br /> <br />The Junior God, 'mid leaf and bud, <br /> Passed on with a weary air, <br />Till lo! he came to a pool of mud, <br /> And some hogs were rolling there. <br />Then in he plunged with gleeful cries, <br /> And down he lay supine; <br />For they had no mud in paradise, <br /> And they likewise had no swine. <br /> <br />The Junior God forgot himself; <br /> He squelched mud through his toes; <br />With the careless joy of a wanton boy <br /> His reckless laughter rose. <br />Till, tired at last, in a brook close by, <br /> He washed off every stain; <br />Then softly up to the radiant sky <br /> He rose, a god again. <br /> <br />The Junior God now heads the roll <br /> In the list of heaven's peers; <br />He sits in the House of High Control, <br /> And he regulates the spheres. <br />Yet does he wonder, do you suppose, <br /> If, even in gods divine, <br />The best and wisest may not be those <br /> Who have wallowed awhile with the swine?<br /><br />Robert William Service<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-junior-god/
