Call me Ashmodai
For if you see me as a demon, give me at least the honor of an honest name
I am not Lurker-in-Shadows, Bringer-of-Candy, Stealer-of-Innocence
for these live only in your minds
Yes, I come from between the worlds, and yes, I hide between invisible folds, for there you have banished me
I come to you with words of love, waves of desire
but you echo them as hate, make all that which attracts repel
I come to cherish, to embrace that which you say you hold most dear
but you return all fondness with loathing, each kiss with the rabid spit of dogs gone mad
You point to me as symbol of all that you would hide, cast your sins upon me as if they are no longer yours,
deflect the watchmen from the doorposts of your house, and send me tortured, bleeding, to the desert
off to the lands of Azazel
and pretend that with me gone your acts are not acts, your assaults are not assaults, that when you force
yourselves upon your children in the night it is not an act of rage and power, not a violation from within the sacred
bonds, that it is not you but me
some devil sprung from tabloid hell, from innocents' imagination
For where you hide within the darkness I seek the day
I yearn that I might caress with joy those who you chide and frighten
those who you force to say no to love, say no to beauty, say no to any breath of life
Yes, call me evil, call me alien, call me Ashmodai
but I am the caring stranger within your gates
I come to you to bring not a sword
but a mirror.