Utnapishtim's Tragedy

"O father, dear father!" cried the youth, full of joy,
"What wonders my kinsmen do tell!
A man, no, a god rules in Uruk this year
Whose great deeds ring out like a bell!"

"Yes yes, my good son," spoke the father most wise,
"I am sure that your stories are grand;
Yet your time here is short, from the city you came
So relax and enjoy the good land."

"But father, my father," the youth did insist,
"The king is a legend in full;
He breaks the great trees and contends with the giant
And destroys the Heavenly Bull."

"Bull of Heaven?" spoke he who was longer in years,
"There is none save the Maker thereof;
Methinks I have met with this man whom you know
For he wished of me truth from Above."

"Did you really," said he, "meet the great king of Ur
In whom gods rejoice and condemn?
What wisdom learnt he from your anointed lips,
You, who are Father of Men?"

"My son," chuckled he who was weary of world,
"Anything but the truth would suffice;
He thought immortality a thing to be gained
Through works, not by sacrifice."

"So I told him of God, of Adam and Eve,
Of the Tree in the midst of the Glen;
Of the fruit which they ate, of the price that they paid
Which altered the course of all men."

"O father, no father!" wept the youth with dismay,
"I know now of the things I have heard;
Of a flood and a boat and a thieving old snake,
Your story is hopelessly blurred!"

"O, woe to the day!" cried old father Noah
Who scrunched up his eyes in great pain.
"When Ham, miracle son of my old age
Gave heed to the master of Cain!"