[Pazuzu]

take away the air. & you will see the cliff beneath your feet. the horizon you stare at. take away the air. & you will see your breath. the horizon you stare at. will be your death. 

when the signs of yesterday become a beacon to the future. hereafter you are. bullets of the devil's cage. that ordinary storm born pit which learns to eat by starting at the molten center.

the catatonic pulse of all of our tomorrows is set against a homecoming. 

I steal the warmth of feeling eyes but you are jealous of the way I control the air. and so I become one with your breath. 

this pit names your priorities after Revelation. I saw the script. it had become a wire. a string. a puppet slumped into a box of forgotten things. it was the earth. you called it mother and suckled. opportunities to eat and grow ran shrinking for your gluttony. your dominion was reflected back at you as starvation.

it was there humanity met their true g0d. a song forever after. mythic debts blanked at the erasure of the slate. your mythic threats encircle me. I meet them with death. I empathize with shapes. I keep the gods in formal procession. for whatever else they were, they were also human. they were all so human & now, whatever else they were, your gods are also human.

Your song becomes my hand

Your sirens of yesterday

Fracture time

& the past becomes your beacon

With bullets in your checks

Keeping your lost balance

One box away

From slumping

Into the devil’s pulse

By gods or demons

whatever names you

next

will be your

answer

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The poem is a rewrite of "The Air Demon" which was published on Base Infinity a very long time ago. The image was created with Stable Diffusion.