Rumination

Kill The Dark

I looked into the monster’s eyes.
He snarled. He drooled. He flashed his claws.
I measured up his massive size
And cowered ‘fore his jaws.

“Your life is mine,” he growled anon
With widened mouth and matted hairs.
“I’ll feed you to me wife and son
After we’ve said our prayers.”

I summoned all the wrath I could—
The fears of past, the dreads to come—
And so I struck before he would.
My pulse beat like a drum.

I raged against his dirty hide
With every evil I could name,
With curses I would ne’er abide
In any other frame.

While he had only meant to kill
And put a dinner on his plate,
I chose instead to drink the thrill
Of unimpeded hate.

And so I slew not him alone
But every love he ever bore:
His wife, his son, each beast he’d known
Until there were no more.

I afterwards surveyed my deed,
The havoc wreaked across the land.
Before you think that I was freed,
Let me before you stand.

The pools of blood embossed the place;
Each was a crimson looking glass.
When I bent down to see my face,
I saw what ne’er will pass.

Instead of face, I saw my soul:
A wretched, blackened, empty thing.
Where once I thought to kill the dark,
I had become its king.