To Punish Mortals

When my brothers fell from Heaven we saw
the angels left behind recede, as if
in some reflected glory gone before
it was they who Fell to earth, not us. Stiff
our wings with blood and gore yet struggled, we,
to land upon the ancient world –as kings
among the lands of mortal men we’d be
and worry not about the shelterings
of brothers and our final lot in life.
To each his own – we made the best of what
we found: some land, a husband or a wife
to help us hunt and farm and bear our fruit.
Immortal spirits though we were, we wept
for what was lost and what we should have kept.