Dinner with the Devil

Bring me your wild, your dark,
your broken places.
Bring me your torrents of fear.
Bring them,

for I am not afraid of the dark
any longer
for I know their depths and have lived there
with the false Gods of despair.

I know them intimately
and have the scars to bear proof
of my survival.
I know their pain. Your pain.

and have lost my fear,
washed away with so many other things
in the floods of night,
I am raw. Like you.

Tender. Like you.
I know the demons cannot be fought alone.
And so let us grasp each other
broken and willing to trust not in our power,

but in a love that is beyond us.
Biblical, tender and true.
A light in the night, flickering in the wind,
Strange. Imperfect. Perfect.

About this poem. 

There are some advantages to having been through hell a few times in your life.

The art is by Dona Mara Friedman. It is called “Continuum”  and is part of an exhibit of her encaustic art at The Southern Vermont Arts Center.

Tom