Love Poem: Light On the Devil's Chord - Day 38
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Written by: Laura Breidenthal

Light On the Devil's Chord - Day 38

Day 38

Pugnaciousness set aside, 
Phantasmal was the anticipation, 
Possessing each moment
Some shutter fell over him
He knew, at least, that he had me 
He knew that I cared enough
Ours together, in his hands and mine,
I gave him the means to perceive

He could see the four horses of ruin fade from view,
Like a dream he knew would return 
A plan preempted 
And his eyes—I watched his eyes change—
I saw the piercing light in them,
His willing gaze at the sun of my hopes
And yet, I could see her too 
And how she roared and thrashed
She crawled in there, despairing,
Envying, gurgling, shrieking 
It was I who led him here,
And I could see he had shared
The same feelings 
It was momentary,
But he felt it—
The warm ray of raw redemption,
The sun of my hopes

The demons, Hades, Death, 
Gaped at such a scene, 
Watching our still silhouettes
We stood there before our creation—our musical visions
And now he knew he must behold my harmony
The demons, Hades, unalterable
Shook at such a sight, watching our frames

Enter the maelstrom as it tore open for us
A performance underway
Death, constant, remained grievously jubilant 

Sprays of water inundated our faces
The droplets falling from our starved jaws
Reminded me that what I was showing him now
Was approved by the Almighty God
And in my mind, I envisioned her,
She appeared as easily as the Devil’s conjurations
She appeared
The way I had seen her first in the Prison of Plot—
In disguise, crumpled, desperate
Her weak, beaten body, a single demon,
Strangely sympathetic to the eye,
She managed to spring up 
Awkward, feeble in the dirt, 
Humbly and admirably 
This bizarre vision of Lady Darkness’s façade,
In it, something sweet—the mask of the lie

In his eyes the black embers of her awe and anger
Burned, with shrieks like of young, frightened hares,
Strong plant stalks snapping, 
Blooming deaths with last-moment expression reanimating
She saw his strength as weakness—
She loved nothing more but to see her fallen angel weep
Away and ever endless from the light 
She meant to devour them wholly again
To drag them—and him—to the rhapsody of ultimate end
Ultimate Darkness
A strange, incomprehensible void of nonexistence
The Devil looked on to this demon in disgust
Enraged and paining his heart

And then, he stopped, watching fervently,
As a little girl appeared from out of the precipitating fog
A child again
Beholding this fuming, gray demon  

As it grew into the tall frame of who she truly was—
She could return to the surface hand in hand,
With her 
Without him

He scoffed bitterly,
Ready to accuse this being of her foolishness, 
But words failed him as the little girl began to sing: