We defeated our aching bodies
And drove them into the dark
With the Adversary to whom
We gladly handed our affections and our pleasures.
In a hundred years
Or five hundred
Or a thousand
Bodies and kisses and
Skin and caresses
Will come into the light
And we will say, how could we
Have been so foolish?
And we will see the gaunt old Devil
Cowering in the corner and say:
If we were wrong about love,
Perhaps we were wrong about evil.
And he will come out from the place beneath
And smile with shining eyes and teeth
And charm us with his wiles, his unfamiliar arts
And we will understand at last the truth:
The Devil
Oh, the Devil
Oh, the Devil
Oh, the Devil has work for idle hearts.
