To My Demons : You Can No Longer Stay

---------------------/Exorcism Diaries Ch.3: To My Demons: The Thoughts Of The Man Possessed By Legion As He Bows Down To Jesus


For too long I have walked naked
for you - afflicted
sojourning in graveyards seeking silence
from the chatter and balderdash
shrills and wailing that besieged me; rarely a moment's
rest
children, men, crowds, animals howling simultaneously terrorizing
my thoughts, swords clashing, the chilling sound of tumult
blood splattering, limbs severed men laughing hysterically, crying and yelling
fleeing from wolves and ravens in lustful, unremitting pursuit of macabre
death, the sounds of whole cities ransacked in war, catapults:
incessant
owls and mules, the crescendo of hissing vipers approaching
then retreating cyclically....
walking away from the woman I loved, my paradise
in flesh, I still remember the soft touch of her lips (when near the tombs)
the family that raised and inculcated me
with a sound and reasonable outlook on life and convictions
about virtue and ethical bearings that I have since
jettisoned (along with my clothes and sanity)
driven away by my madness - and your overbearing command:
(to live a harsh life and give up the ghost alone and frail)
and for your cruel, corrupting, sinister insidious counsel
the empire has had no choice but to fasten chains
and keep watch over an eccentric,
(but maybe worse) - a "man" who snarls at his neighbor
and vociferously reiterates the cataclysmic theater that has become
his soul
spitting at Roman senators, punching elderly men and women
then mocking slaves
chasing little girls, hurling epithets at their parents in the synagogues
pelting sheep, horses, oxen with stones before gleefully running away
slicing himself with these selfsame stones
and when finally apprehended....foaming at the mouth.
to all that question and ask my name, my motives
all I can muster is Legion
because I've forgotten my real name, my idenity
and any inkling of the beauty of my past amidst this ugliness
because my problems are too multitudinous for nomenclature
because I am sick of sleeping in the desert
always worried about warding off wild beasts
and whether the next locust I seek to eat will be a scorpion
leave me alone, please....I bow
before the last Vestige of Hope that I have
and with the last iota of self-will left in me
curse you
to go back to the swine from whence you came and drown in the sea
for all I care (I cant be tormented any worse than I already have)
just give me back the life you've stolen
so I can finally begin to make amends
for the evil you've wrought



---Luke 8:26-39------------/
Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me." For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Legion," for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him