Started off safe, with late waking
On the wings of bland deceiving dreams
But demons don’t always wait for coffee
And my demon and I had a date.

You who held my tears
When raging at all the injustice
my two-year unbroken body could handle
Tantruming I went bodily
Into that empty room & the door closed
And walked out what drawn breath later
Tearless and smiling.

Paper and pen, the best way to talk to old friends,
Sat before us, and two red-fingered hands.

What do you want from me? All of your tears and your filth.

You who washed my tears streaming
Through my beard as I stilled your screams
In a newborn father’s sleepless showers
And waking dreams. You who gave me back my tears and the rage I knew
Before I was born, hidden in the pools of my genes.

What do you want from me? I am your beast.
What do you want from me: You angel haloed
By the light that streamed behind you
From the door that opened in the dark places
So long I have dwelt.
So long I held back the waters
Storms and violence, your unspoken sex, your soiled fears.

Can you blame me, who once you called pity?
I raged for you, blue-faced, deep-scowling
You held me in the times of silence
In that moment the doors closed
And opened again.

In grit and fang you held me
In what thrusting and hungry embrace
In what loving and hungry, red-eyed embrace.

When emerging together from the feasting and filth
We gathered our slime and our seed, buried our vomit
We cleaned house and made coffee, my demon and I,

In fierce and quiet love.

Posted on February 15, 2016