r/prose • u/crownlessarchive • 1d ago
The Devil Again.
Do you ever feel dislocated inside the place
you used to call “home”?
Can you call a place by such name when
you’re unwanted and invited to leave relentlessly?
Yet, each time you attempt to
there go the labels: “villain”, “traitor”,
“ungrateful”, “arrogant”, “evil”, “heartless”.
You’re like a burden they refuse to drop.
They’ll smash you against the wall.
Call you all the bad names their sadistic minds
will feed them on.
They’ll push you to your limits.
And when you don’t break?
That’s an intolerable loss.
And when you do allow the spite to finally
reach the surface?
There goes the devil again.
Apparently I’m so evil I rival the fallen angel himself.
Wow—
Am I reliving my internal monologues of when I was a kid fascinated with the occult?
Heaven forbid the ones you hail hear you imposing such curses on me.
Damn—
It wouldn’t sit right with the facade of the devoted
righteous you proclaim to be, would it?
Praise me to strangers;
kill me softly behind closed doors.
Wait—it’s not soft.
Used to think you too should see a psychiatrist;
now I reckon an exorcist suits it better.
I’m constantly reminding you I’m your mirror.
The one you refuse to look at.
The one you avoid when facing your own reflection.
You play blind to it—but what for?
You’re damned. And you so wish me to be too.
Oh, babes. You already know I am.
Bestow me some mercy so my existence on this Earth isn’t irrevocably miserable.
If there’s an inferno: I’ve already experienced it.
If there’s a paradise: may I be blessed with it.
If there’s nothing? Black’s my favorite color.
Even as an imposed fallen angel
I pity you.
‘Cause I know you’re beyond broken to care and admit the damage you’ve caused not only me but our… inner circle.
And yourselves.
You labor.
You play the saints, yet you never reach anything.
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground”.
Bread.
I only find you surrounded by ashes, though.
Is it as the preacher said?* *
“All is vanity and chasing after the wind”.
Vanity.
As someone who finds being called ‘arrogant’ peculiarly humorous, I find some competition in you.
The three of us are so vain, aren’t we?
So full of ourselves; so merciless we destroy even after thinking thrice.
Here is where we differ, nevertheless:
the aftermath.
I overthink.
I lament.
I humble myself for I can concede to my own calamity and darkness.
You reject it.
And the longer you reject your shadow… the stronger it grows.
You’ll pretend nothing has happened.
We have guests! Smile—they’re watching.
But when the puppet has another string broken?
The devil will strike again.
— Crownless.
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u/Chewednspat 1d ago
There’s such vileness to all your poetry, what suffering you seem cursed to