Light On the Devil's Chord - Day 2
I awoke the next day, with a soft smile,
Not awakened by the screeching and the moaning of the demons beside,
But of the intense breathing of my collaborator,
Crouching above me, glaring me down with eyes abhorred
Though in a flash, the fury in his reptilian pupils disintegrated
Into a strange grin
“How do you rest, woman, in the cradles of chaos all about you?”
I looked at him from where I lay, searching for his purpose in asking
“I need my strength, and in my sleep I find inspiration…”
“Sleep…” He sang…
His eyes gazed above and melted down into my own again..
“Sleep is so alien to me now…distant…a bewildering past regret-
How one can do so much, in a day… or night,
While others dream up dull dreams…dull inspirations…
How one who watches, fulfills…plots…kills…
And one who overlooks, with eyes of lack shut,
Dies more quickly in their ignorance…
Death crouches, waiting in your rest,
Death be fate in the closing of your foolish eyes…
Be it not wisdom you seek?
Perhaps your rest will rattle at the sound of the word
Discovery—excitement…does it draw you near?
Answer me, my dear,
For these days dwindle, and I have you less and less,
As the hours pass and pass…”
I realized then, that I could not sit up
For in the night, as I trustingly slept,
His broad wings designed my snare,
Black soot…sucking me down to the ground
Fear crawled about me, though I dare not struggle
In the blackness…his eyes more molded in me,
Than the trap that knotted me
“Sleep…” I sang, Hades crawling around the pit in which I lay…
Satan sneered and turned away, but listened very closely…
“It is what brings us the light,
The trust of a brand new day,
Beating upon even the weakest of wings…
Bringing strength in supple cloud, so pure…so pleasant,
How it envelopes the skies in which we gaze
Into dreams often more appealing than reality’s blaze…
I speak for I know, in closing my eyes,
Discovery so grand beyond space or time…
Our own minds bring knowledge that never quenches the soul…
Though when stirred by spirit of our Creator, we find we are never starved
Yes, we are limitless in our thoughts,
Our rest is beguiling …tempered, controlled
Though gentle, freeing, collective in fold…”
I reached my hand to his wing, the soot shriveling…
And he shuttered and pulled away
“Why then….!?” He spat in anger…
“Why do you say rest is so freeing,
When awakened by my breathing you are trapped…?
Yes, you are mine, and yet you smile,
You are soft, in the volcanic eruption of my style,
You are HATED, scorned, negated…
Yet you speak as if rest will bring me light,
What if rest never comes,
To the greatest of mind,
We flock, we tumble, we stalk,
Because it is all we will ever want!
We judge, we laugh, we taunt,
For it is in our blood to haunt…
If dreams be your ally,
Than nightmares of reality be mine…
You are immovable, like a swine hanging,
Freshly slaughtered…
No longer grunting, for breath leaves you
Your desire to feel alive overwhelms you…
Your lack of knowledge of me enshrouds you…
Truth it be, in heaven once bound,
I find your company more duller than the ground
You anger me so,
Like a wilting rose
Your beauty once fresh in the excitement of new
Now you are garbage, slave of the slab
And I hold the whip you cannot dream to grab!”
I sighed, the music heavy on my soul,
Crushing me, my breath light and weak
“I wake up to your crying Fallen Foe…
All around me, the screaming…screeching…sorrows and woe…
I sing you hope…no longer can you see…
That what I wake up to is your eager breathing to know me…”
This left him silent for a while…
Death grimaced and shook his head
Satan sat in the soot, confounded almost,
His wings lowering, a black, tethered feather brushing against my face
“Sing with me…”
My eyes averted from the darkness,
I could see a faint light… where was it coming from…?
And together, like chimes, we sang all the day…
About dreams, and nightmares,
Brightness, and gray…
“Slaves of song we must agree,
This light we see, is new and free,
But is it freedom that we two seek?
Do we lie in wait for our souls to peak…
That discovery, in truth,
In reality or dream,
Is the vision we both painfully seek”
The harmonic dissonance of demons faint…
Music so tense, unyielding of strain…
He looked into my eyes brazenly,
Casting shadows on the new-found light…
Challenged once again
Copyright © Laura Breidenthal | Year Posted 2015
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