Pandaemonium
Lucifer's a pudgy angel now,
carrying around a clockwork hook.
He glistens like the night-sweat of
a troupe of drunkard clowns.
The hook is busy swinging in one hand,
heavy and sharp, catching this,
piercing that, while he smiles,
extending with ersatz camaraderie
the other flat, empty palm. I would
send him a letter, but
he's disappeared all the pens
commandeered the keyboards
burnt down the paper mills,
so it can only be written
on tombstones with a broken crucifix in
my blood, and it's doubtful he will read.
I need my blood
for better things, like
watering the apple blossoms
shot pink with spring fire, and
bleeding a banner with a new chorus
for the mongrel choir
throat singing back to him the
National Anathema.
February 2025
Posted For Word Garden Word List
Pandæmonium ...is the capital of Hell in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost...The name stems from the Greek pan (παν), meaning 'all' or 'every', and daimónion
(δαιμόνιον), a diminutive form meaning 'little spirit', 'little angel',
or, as Christians interpreted it, 'little daemon'...Pandæmonium thus roughly translates as "All Demons"—but can also be interpreted as Pandemoneios or 'all-demon-place'..John Milton invented the name in Paradise Lost (1667), as "A solemn Council forthwith to be held at Pandæmonium, the high Capitol, of Satan and his Peers" ~wikipedia
Images: Pandemonium, 1841, ©John Martin
The Fall Of The Rebel Angels, 1562 © Pieter Bruegel the Elder
