Confession of the Adversary

I hereby reveal my plans for humanity. 

I take solace in the certainty that too few will

attend this forewarning to arm you against me 

or alter your collective course 

from onrushing doom. 

To squander every advantage is your way.

Were I not forbidden to exceed trickery, 

I would begin at this very moment to flay 

your soul and burn you to shrieking ash. 

I would extinguish your dim and flickering light 

with a single breath, draw you down into eternal

darkness and with your own help, will yet do so.

Already, my triumphs halt you in your tracks, 

arrest your progress, stunt your growth and lead

you far astray; even to the edge. 

I poisoned your past to doom your future. 

I authored a virulence, sold as salvation. 

Let those who claim to believe, 

follow my scripture!

Every woman shall remain silent 

and obey her husband as God. 

Beat your children, destroy their innocence 

and prepare them to serve me. 

I prompt you to betray your dearest hopes 

and honor the least worthy among you. 

I place self-righteous rot at your core.

Though I bear light no longer, my dark and

striking beauty is undiminished, inspiring both

terror and your secret passion. 

No human eye can fully behold my infernal

glory, but that the heart tremble 

and freeze in its cage.

Young and beautiful you may now be, but 

beneath my gaze, you age a lifetime.

To tempt and reveal you as the base creatures you

are is a delight which never palls; for in so doing,

we together inflict grief upon my enemies.

The faithful and obedient 

ones who serve me are legion. 

My retinue walks piously among you. 

By all means, prattle on about tradition. 

You, whose lives are as brief as smoke, 

what can you know of eternity?

The powerful shall forever 

use the helpless as I see fit. 

Is the lion not entitled to feast? 

How the worm glistens as it writhes upon the

barbed hook. Does it curl and flail in agony

alone, or believe itself to be fighting back?

I mock your fondest hopes, devour joy and

patiently whisper you out of dawning insight. 

Ages ago, I perfected sins for which you still 

have neither name, nor defense.

I am your adversary; 

who rules by any means necessary. 

I am the lord of warmongers and slave-masters,

of rapists and abusers of children. 

I am that irresistible tide which 

drags you down to final reckoning.

I offer suffering and promise 

only torment everlasting. 

I form a hell for all that live and then rule over it. 

I am your master and scourge.

I offer you purpose and most fitting 

is your approaching reward. 

Even now, I reform this world to my own desires. 

Mercy is intolerable and love is a fraud. 

Now there is your wisdom. 

My writing is on the wall. 

Your time draws to a close. 

Your worst fears are a wisp to my reality.

You shall join me in eternal night. 

I am your adversary, rampant over this world, 

of which we together make a nightmare. 

I have at my command such a palette of griefs, 

that the strongest of you are driven to their knees 

in a sobbing heap. 

In my press, I wring the deep juice from you.

I favor the panic-rolling eye of my tender prey

with a bloody smile before I begin. 

Your squealing children and those you hold most

dear, I peel before your eyes; then set them alight 

to boil their living blood and char their flesh 

to cinders as they dance and sing.

I break your spirit, shatter your will, make you

kneel and plead for death; as I cause all you love

to dissolve screaming and vanish before your eyes. 

I consume you alive to the last quivering morsel, 

with no wasted remnant 

to suggest you ever lived.

I enjoy the final stuttering beat of your heart,

savor your dying stench and ride you 

forever down into my darkness.