MAGNETO By: Dannell Lites With apologies to Rudyard Kipling and "Tomlinson":):) Now Magneto gave up the ghost on Avalon so fair, And a Spirit came to his throneside and gripped him by the hair -- A Spirit gripped him by the hair and carried him far away, Till he heard as the roar of an ill fed beast the roar of the beast and prey: Till he heard the roar of the Beast and prey die down and fade to peace, And they came to the Gate within the Wall where Peter holds the keys. "Stand up, stand up now, Magneto, and answer damn your eye For the harm ye did for the sake of fear or ever ye came to die -- For the harm ye did for the sake of fear upon Earth all alone!" And the dire wrath of Magneto grew white as a rain-washed bone. "O I had a friend on Earth," he said, "who was my greatest foe, And well would he answer all for me if he did only know." -- "For that ye strove in justice's cause it shall be writ anon, But now ye wait at Heaven's Gate and not on Avalon: Though we called Xav'er from his bed this night, he could not speak for you, For a crime is done by one and one and never by two and two." Then Magneto looked up and down, and little gain was there, For the naked stars grinned overhead, and he saw that his soul was sere: The Wind that blows between the worlds, it cut him like a knife, And Magneto took up his tale and spoke of his good in life. "This I have read in a book," he said, "and that was told to me, And this I have thought that another man thought of the roar of musketry." The mutant souls flocked like homing doves and bade him clear the path, But Peter twirled the jangling keys in weariness and wrath. "Ye have read, ye have heard, ye have thought," he said, "and the tale is yet to run: By the worth of the body that once ye had, give answer -- what ha' ye done?" Then Magneto looked back and forth, and little good it bore, For the Darkness stayed at his shoulder-blade and Heaven's Gate before: -- "O this I have felt, and this I have guessed, and this I have heard men say, And this they wrote that another man wrote of how the bodies lay ." -- "Ye have read, ye have felt, ye have guessed, good lack! Ye have hampered Heaven's Gate; There's little room between the stars in idleness to prate! O none may reach by tired speech or Acolyte or men Through borrowed deed to God's good meed that lies so fair within; Get hence, get hence to the Lord of Lies, and reap what all you sew , And. . .the faith that ye share with Avalon uphold you, Magneto!" . . . . . The Spirit gripped him by the hair, and gene by gene they fell Till they came to the pool of X-Factors that rim the mouth of Hell: The first are red with pride and wrath, the next are white with pain, But the third are black with clinkered sin that cannot burn again: They may hold their path, they may leave their path, with never a soul to mark, They may burn or freeze, but they must not cease in the Scorn of the Outer Dark. The Wind that blows between the worlds, it nipped him to the bone, And he yearned to the flare of Hell-Gate there as the light of his own hearth-stone. The Devil he sat behind the bars, where the desperate legions drew, But he caught the hasting Magneto and would not let him through. "Wot ye the price of good pit-coal that I must pay?" said he, "That ye rank yoursel' so fit for Hell and ask no leave of me? I am all o'er-sib to the atom's breed that ye should give me scorn, For I strove with God for your virgin soul the day that he was born. Bring down, bring down your strongest iron, and answer loud and high The harm that ye did to Humanity or ever you came to die." And Magneto looked up and up, and saw against the night The belly of a tortured common man blood-red in magnetic light; And Magneto looked down and down, and saw beneath his feet The frontlet of a tortured friend milk-white in magnetic heat. "O I had a love on earth," said he, "that kissed me to my fall, And if ye would call my love to me I know she would answer all." -- "All that ye did in love forbid it shall be write anon, But now ye wait at Hell-Mouth Gate and not on Avalon: Though we whistled your love from her grave to-night, I trow she would not run, For the sin ye do by two and two ye must pay for one by one!" The Wind that blows between the worlds, it cut him like a knife, And Magneto took up the tale and spoke of his sin in life: -- "Once I ha' laughed at the power of Love and twice at the grip of the Grave, And thrice I ha' patted my cause on the head that mutants might be saved." The Devil he blew on a brandered soul and set it aside to cool: -- "Do ye think I would waste my good pit-coal on the hide of a brain-sick fool? I see no worth in the hobnailed mirth or the jolthead jest ye did That I should waken my gentlemen that are sleeping three on a grid." "Ye have scarce the soul of a man," he said, "but the roots of madness are there, And for that madness should ye come in were I the lord alone. But sinful pride has rule inside -- and mightier than my own. Honour and Wit, fore-damned they sit, to each his priest and whore: Nay, scarce I dare myself go there, and you they'd torture sore. Ye are neither dammned nor saved," he said; "ye are neither savior nor brute -- Go, get ye back to the flesh again for the sake of Man's repute. I'm all o'er-sib to the atom's breed that I should mock your pain, But look that ye win to worthier sin ere ye come back again. Get hence, the hearse is at your door -- the grim black stallions wait -- They bear your clay to rest to-day. Speed, lest ye come too late! Go back to Earth with a lip unsealed -- go back with a mighty cry, And carry my word to the X-Men now or ever ye come to die: That the sin they do by two and two they must pay for one by one -- And. . .the God you forsook with a prideful look be with you, Magneto!" The End!