The Devil’s Bloom

“It begins like a seed. It ends in a carnival of colorful despair.”

A whisper here,
a thought there,
little things
everywhere.

Fear — sweet, sweet seduction.
The Devil’s Bloom, I call it.

Riding on a mighty high-horse,
dressed in glitters of your mediocrity.

A table for two,
the dinner of a lifetime,
a righteous feast.

Perfected just for you.
Oh, the details —
impeccable.

It’s beginning like a seed.
Its end, a carnival of colorful despair,
each thought tap-dancing
on your quivering heart.

But I reckon,
the bloom withers
if you don’t water it.

And only those who’ve knelt
in hell’s defiance
would dare,

point and say:
Hades is that way.”


Why.

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” Oscar Wilde

Was it because I stood up
to the man in the mirror,
flame remembered me?

Was it because I stopped listening
to the voices?
They were never kind.

Was it because I smiled,
and made joy look effortless?
I told my thoughts to resign.

Or do you simply miss
sipping from the cup
of broken me?

Why take it all away?

Now Piper authors
babel’s dirge—

and you vulgar ibises
take heed!