Friday, February 1, 2008

Demon Keeper

I am the demon keeper.
Housed in this pretty body are legions of monsters, each one a new configuration of savagery and wretched ugliness
Colored like chameleons, they blend into every landscape and season; showing themselves only after it’s too late and the broken space is left littered with the colored fragments of a kaleidoscope.
They laugh with pleasure, always getting what they want.
Swimming in the bloodstream like drifters on a river, they make their mark, leaving no occasion untainted with their poison.
In the moments after lovemaking, the demons rise in folly, bringing worry and distress to a tingling body.
They are disguised as self interest, boundaries, morals- a handful of names cloak them, but they only serve the machine. They are playmates and lovers, partners in the game of sleep.
They feed on my fear.
They lick the tears of my jealousy.
They dance to the rhythm of my anxious heart.
It is all they know.

I am the demon keeper,
Young and wide-eyed, I train to crack the whip of master. It is the art of subtlety and stillness, for they are crafty and ingenious, insidious and sly. To contain them will take absolute patience, observation, and obedience to my own master, for now, it is a battle of will versus habit, and they are strong.

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