My Demon
With apologies to R.L. Stevenson
I have a little demon who goes in and out with me,
And how he came to be so cruel is more than I can see.
He is wrinkled, blue and stinky from his hoofs up to his head;
And I see him try to trip me, when I jump into my bed.
The weirdest thing about him is the way he shoots out sparks;
He does it while I’m taking tests and I get awful marks;
And he kindles forest fires and he singes Mother’s hair,
And I get blamed for both because he really isn’t there.
He hasn’t got a clue of how most children like to play,
That giving Dad a heart attack is not the proper way.
Sometimes he steps inside me and he looks out through my eyes;
And then we really give my silly Nursie a surprise!
One evening in the summer when the sun was very red,
I wandered down my street pretending everyone was dead;
And just when it was getting fun my demon went away,
And suddenly I saw myself all wrinkled, old and gray.
Published in Doppelgänger magazine.
I started a horror humor version of "A Child's Garden of Verses" and was a couple dozen poems in when I discovered this had already been done. Twice. Lol
