Exorcist

Fools, you have opened the door to demons,

Again.

The Old Adversary, once he gets his toe in,

Is not easy to evict.

It requires a bailiff of extraordinary force and guile.

A man pure in heart.


For what did Lucifer and his angels fall?

For believing they could be as God,

For believing they could win eternal joy through their own will.


Do not, in your fear, overestimate the Devil’s might:

He, too,was created, and limited, as we are,

His miracles but the facsimile of miracles,

His psychic powers merely superior observation.

He can do only what God allows him.


Bestial growls and curses fright the air,

And savage hate bruises my mind,

But I hold onto the crucifix, I do not let it drop.

Mary stands before me,

Face half-veiled in gold and white,

Her eyes filled with tears.


I adjure you, Satan,deceiver of the human race,

Know the Spirit of truth and of grace,

Who drives off your snares and confounds your lies,

Depart from this creature of God.


And this,

This haggard visage in the glass,

Grey with exhaustion and dread,

Having looked too often

Into the Devil’s eyes,

Is this I?

How far now from that laughing child,

Longing to dress up in a priest’s vestments

And strut about the puppet theatre

With censer in hand.