Fire Water (King James Version)

And on the twelfth day
God harvested the golden barley
and steeped it in the waters of the purest mountain stream
and slowly roasted it over a peaty fire
and milled it to a grist
and mashed the grist within a tun
and poured the holy brew into a vat
and stirred in some fresh and restless yeast
and instructed a couple of cherubim-technicians
to manifest the visionary distillery conjured by His mind

But He rejected the first batch as little better than fortified wine
and told them to boil and cool it once again
and then weather the best of it in barrels of wise and welcome oak
until
in His vast yet gentle hand
He raised a glass of fluid amber fire
to the fully ripened evening sun

And God tasted that it was good

and suspiciously dangerous as well
as He watched the virgin whisky vapours
helter skelter down to hell

And Lucifer he rose
like a wintered bull in Spring
his nostrils flaring and flickering around the sweet and fiery fumes

“My Lord and Master!” said he
“Quite what You – in Your boundless wisdom – have just created, I know not,
but I fear it is no meek and angelic concoction.
Its mere scent has roused me from my deepest slumber with promises beyond my sober grasp.
What then might it do
to mortal man or woman?”

God passed Lucifer the crystal glass
and Lucifer drank
and drank
till his eyes turned green
and his tongues turned numb with liquid song

“Dance!” commanded God

And Lucifer danced
a drunk and impudent jig
and his cock it rose
and his wings they grew
and he danced right through the night
he did
till the morning star shone through.

And the evening and the morning were the thirteenth day.