Survivors’ War Song

Devil
Devil or doctor
Teacher or angel
Speaking in tongues

Answer
Answer or dogma
Outlet or handcuff
Blindfolded hounds

Seeking
Seeking or holding
Conservator carver
Slicing through ice

Ripper
Ripper or pastor
Preacher molestor
Collar of lies

I am beholden
To historic forces
I am beholden
To hands that entrap and imprison attempts to reveal
I am beholden
To whispers and shouts in the blood of the congregation
I am beholden
To words on a page that are bent into pretzels of pain

Jailers
Jailers or blacksmiths
Forger redeemers
Slippery thieves

Father
Father confessor
Father forgiver
Indulgence is bliss

I am released now
By tearing of garments
I am released now
Through memories pried from the files of the damned
I am released now
To find losing battles that no one has bothered to fight
I am released now
To fugue state redemption relief from the most holy light

Devil
Angel is devil
Father is teacher
Teacher is wrong

Devil
Embalm or rupture
Freedom or lordship
Prayer rug or shroud

I am remainder
Of secret agreement
I am remainder
Of whispered imagined forgotten requests for my skin
I am remainder
Of liturgy twisting above acid baths of closed eyes
I am remainder
Of everything not allowed out to be loose in the daylight