Three Dreadful Demons I’ve Met & Hope to Never Meet Again

By Ben Bird

Featured art: Young Woman with an Otsue Demon Dressed as an Itinerant Priest by Kawanabe Kyosai

I.

Emberish blood and ever-waking Rage

Led me to an icy lake at the end of a cold day.

I laid my body bare on the frigid sheet

And cold as it was, this infernal heat

Melted all the ice away.

But as I sank into the water, dark, quiet, and deep

I felt the embers in my blood cool into a crystalline sea.

Sinking into the depths brought me clarity.

II.

I stained my soul with the colors of Lust, and

Despite our sin I found her divine; her dozens of eyes

Pierced my soul as we played, and wrestled my heart with the strength

Of an old-world savage, tiring my body for days.

And as I found pleasure makes men abysmally weak,

I ran to the forest and hid among the trees.

Standing still as a stone I grew moss to cover me.

III.

Very long I sat in a petrified shock

Deafened by the beating drum in my chest;

A sign of Fear in my heart.

Shivers catching on every nerve

When I desired to speak, all went dark.

But all it took to find some light

Was a shift of loyalty

From holding the gaze of my fright

To embracing my curiosity.

---

Ben Bird (he/him) is a Creative Writing major at Ohio University going into his senior year. He enjoys poetry, animation, and literature is his free time. He hopes to be a published author of literature and poetry in the future.