The Devil's Knocking At My Door

By Indratapa Routh

The devil's been knocking at my door.

Slow and stealthy, the master of allure

Venus flytrap on its claws.

It creeps up on clans when they least know

The devil's been knocking at my door.

Dear God, if not for those treacherous eyes

Laser beams flooding out, they hypnotize!

I would not have fallen prey.

But what more have I left to say?

Not when blood is rushing into my ears,

Magnet keening on my moral compass,

And I'm seeing the darkest white.

Far away, in some distant dream

The angel on my shoulder is still dancing.

I'm struggling to keep it upright.

Can't I, for a moment, rest my muscles sore?

The devil knocks again, alight, at my door.

I tear. My organs strain upon the rack–

Until I can feel my tendons give away.

I'm agonized between my two bloody halves

Wantonly printing fingernails onto both!

The devil stays sucking in one of them, slow.

Bottomless pit, unrelenting abyss

And I want to, I just want to give in.

For once, if I do, will I be impure?

Oh, the devil keeps knocking at my door.

By Indratapa Routh