Hidden Despair Poem by Barry Middleton

behind my eyes a demon laughs
and mocks my destiny
yet angels whisper to my soul
with hints of ecstasy

and death awaits in a ghostly glen
with shadowed ferns that know
the secrets of eternity
and where the nightshades grow

upon a street where all may meet
the devil and the priest
conceal the truth and murder youth
and quietly feed the beast

and fiends may laugh at my retreat
but rage within my heart
says I must hide my fears inside
from evil's darkest art