By Paul Manchester
The demons are having a feast tonight-
a feast inside of my brain!
They crept in my ear while I was asleep-
humming a party-time strain.
They raided my cupboards for all I had stored.
They cooked up a succulent feast.
Guilt from the times I artistically whored
was ladled on as I was pieced
out in thick portions of
words said in anger or bitter words said without care,
heaped on each plate a big lump of self pity
seasoned with all that’s not fair.
Dessert was the mem’ries that I would forget
The demons all relished each bite
They went back for seconds of all I regret
I feared it would go on all night.
Yet drunk on my whines, they pound on the table!
They pound out a head splitting beat.
Stomping and clapping, they start chanting loud
and laughing they jump to their feet.
The demons are having a dance tonight
A dance inside of my brain
Caught in their rhythms, I’m pulled to the floor.
I fear that I am not sane!
Sleep will not come in this dizzying dance
Their steps thump a beat in my soul
Drunken on terror I just can’t keep still
Their melody’s captured me whole.
I’m whirling, and swirling, I’m lost in a frenzy
I hang from a web I can’t see.
All that I am and all that I’m not
and all that I never will be.
All I’ve done wrong with the best of intentions
the nightmares all clap to this beat-
my carefully crafted daydream inventions
crumble beneath my clay feet.
I’m dancing up high on a precipice
The maw of my future below!
The rocky steep cliff of my past behind
I see there is nowhere to go!
Exhaustion is stripping my soul to the bones
hollow bones feverishly spinning
A dervish of doubt and fear and despair
eternally cursed shy of winning.
I spin and I spin till the weak light of dawn
gains strength though the air is so cold.
I open my eyes and find all my demons
dispersed like the faeries of old.
July 1, 2012
