Devil in the Detail
By Edward Swafford
Rancor flickers as you BLINK
I eye godless air dusting a dark sky
luxe lashes as feathered phenomena
pay homage to an envisioning
amity sight
is for the blind — we hunt
for the doom generation, yet it’s
veneration, vastness, veracity
beneath a deepening aegis of
zero perception
Pick your poison to quell the pain
purity is never lost
consorts wear your well-kept secrets
in a well-worn basilisk dress, black
and blazoned
how brazen they become when
they think they’ve won (!)
for tonight, omen oaths are sooner
actioned or later spoken
my virago
Summing second comings deservedly
SO shortsighted
your blood was a blessing, now?
once bitten, thrice bold
cursory protestations of
longwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinding
old-fashioned, new-gravis, prescient
REVENGE
strike a fanatical flame of redlined
red lined remembrance
perfect form
Everybody glows for fifteen seconds
in wakes of your ingress
fantasy awakens and my-oh-my??
phoenix pyroses, a rose
by. any. other. alias = BLOOMS
my apparition
syncretic petals kiss the ground
they fall, you rise
like blushed fireflies trailing as you
breeze beyond passed pasts
all admonish
Bloodshot eyes alit as your will
wills teardrops to well in misspoken
false belief true denialist
manifestos, so…
I kneel at your cross-legged side
placing a caviled crown atop
deadened hair, defeatism “glory”
you own the throne
gloved sable hands hold a miming
mirror to my sub
rosa face
|Staring BACK at me through|
|inflection glass, my reflection|
|you were never real this was|
|all I?|
© Edward Swafford 2025
HAIKU:
Spite befriends many
Vengeance temptation crux
Saddens humankind
Spite befriends many
Vengeance temptation crux
Saddens humankind
*Originally published in Know Thyself, Heal Thyself