The Pretty Demon
To those who are unfailingly kind and have known grief.
The demon faces the mirror
And the scars scream back
Like badges of honour
Mocking the heart
Which was unerringly fragile
For a world so cruel
A wine of misery
To quench the Unfeeling
The lair is a frontier
Keeping the demon from the normal
For mistakes were made
Sin knifing the edges
Of a defiant heart
A lesson learned too late
The lair is quiet
The demon feels safe
Was it the child
Playing by the burrow
Unaware of the racing cart
Or the wife of the manor
Hiding shades of purple
And eyes too static
The demon pushed the child
And painted the lord red
Kindness from an inhuman
The irony of the pathetic
Mercy is forbidden
For a visage so ghastly
Black cannot be white
Cursed was the demon
Whose soul bleeds
Virtues for the unworthy
In a misplaced heaven
Fate sheds secret tears
Forever and later
Memories yawn
In wisps of fume
A child blinking innocence
With his one eye and two horns
And a tail too little,
‘Mother, can I be a human?’,
A smile too kind,
‘You need a smaller heart, my dear’
The demon faces the mirror
And the reflection blinks back
Unmarred
