Temptation
Said the drunkard to the preacherman, "Hey ho, let's have a game,
And to the winner we'll award eternal life.
But to the loser goes a future of eternal wrenching flame:
He'll have to kill himself with this, my trusty knife."
But the holy man said, "Sir you must be really quite morose
To think I'd risk what I already stand to gain.
Still, I admit I am intrigued by what you now propose,
So tell me, sir, what are the terms of your fool game?"
The drunkard smiled a wicked grin revealing rotten gums
And said, "Hee hee, the very first rule of the day,
Is that if you agree to hear the rules beyond rule number one,
Then you are also promising that you will play."
But the preacher shouted, "Fool! You think temptation is the key
By which you hope to my eternal soul ensnare!"
The other yawned and said, "Ho hum, it's all the same to me,
You need not play if you doubt that it will be fair."
The two sat silent for a spell, neither one uttering a sound,
The preacher watching his companion drink his gin.
And so time passed, until the holyman said, "Gad, how you confound!
I promise I will play, now let the game begin!"
"My pure undying soul into the ring I now have tossed,
So please now tell me all the rules I don't know yet."
At which the drunkard slowly smiled and said, "Ha ha you have just lost!
The game began the very moment that we met."