i come to you with gifts, of forbidden

arts – the stiff necks wants all the lovelies

for themselves, and here i am no miser.

take a bite, no tricks you see, yes – your appetite

has grown, feels horrendous when the

delights i bring don’t come the usual hour, make no

frowns, i have already upped the game: even finer delicacy

than the last one. then satiation begins. i see you need more.

like pavlov’s dog, salivating even when the door so much

as cringes in warning: a death alert. fall deeper into sleep.

the old you fades, shrinks while wearing a stranger’s face

that becomes more pronounced, the devil is a top notch sketcher,

paints this face with remarkable attention till

the work is almost done, now the finish touches

and a sinner repents, takes grace. problem solved. except

the catch is in the fine lines, the fuggy meanings

with a snake whose belly is quite quite full from a life time of gorging

whispers i will no longer eat rats. then goes on to cast off old skin

with many rats becoming his arms, legs, mind, heart – ascends

to heaven with blessed wings!

a stranger to love, and love spurns the once lover who sought

and swallowed the temptations of the world in one gulp.

the lover transformed to a hideous beast, while wearing a mask

of immaculate perfection, cast by the devil himself

by the stink is there, the scent, the lingering worms finding holes

of all kinds worming out. they too find the insides too unlovable.

a belly full of rats and a nostalgia for beauty lost –

or found? a serpent finds delight once again in rats squirming about,

eager to flee to darkness, when eyes bore straight at them.

and a once loved lover

came to be just another skin to be molted.