Demon Feast

Demon Feast

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

(with special thanks to the Redduns who stepped out of their pages in my book, Olly Olly Oxen Frey to stand in for my 3am demons)