Lucifer Poem by John Lars Zwerenz

LUCIFER

All of the ocean was at the mercy of the wind.
I sailed at top mast, and tasting infinity,
The sun glared upon me like an orphic tamarind,
And on all the glossy mirrors of the kingdoms in the sea.

The whispering ghost of a demon's soul
Played host in the gleam of the midnight hour.
Like a baleful dream, a black, briny power,
He spoke not a word to the mind he stole.

Yes! My mind was taken by this phantom's wrath!
In the maritime cold, on a starless path
My schooner rocked from starboard to port.
I felt his clutch.A terrible sort
Of terror itself cruised through my veins
As the bile of his watery, endless plains
Rushed upwards with its billowing, wavy disdains.

Dreary I muttered.
My speech it failed and stuttered
As I begged to hear his horrid name.
"Lucifer! " he said,
And knowing I was dead -
I was thrown into the well of eternal flame!

John Lars Zwerenz