Demon Man

by Cliff Lake

What is this thing?
How has it acquired so much?
Or has it lost more?
Its plots are not so devious
As it would have you think,
“More” is the mantra
That suffuses its every intention.
When considering its movement,
That is the aforethought.
Here is a riddle:
What boon is a legacy to the dead man?
Yet this thing and its like
Are so very concerned
With might be said after.
Thus, it has made its likeness
Too widely available,
That some remnant might survive an age
And in future
Puzzle some discoverer
Who might believe
We once had found it worshipful.
A dream composed of dust.
Here is the trap:
Erasing the memory of the tyrant
Leaves the future exposed
To another of its kind,
So we must preserve its tradition
To serve as warning
To a recalcitrant future,
Who may choose servitude
Out of fear,
Or ignorance of consequence.
What is this thing?
What abuses will we tolerate yet?
How has it replicated
In so many places
Scourging so many peoples?
It cannot be human.

Please,
Tell me it is not actually human…

Cliff Lake 1/19/2024
Copyright © Clifford Lake 2024