A shrewd crook larked just to snatch,
Like a hungry foil, he set to scratch,
All he thought he deserved he kept
But what he desired was beyond his reach.
He begged with songs and sentiments filled with deceit.
And the glory of his own conceived a demon;
But robed in an angel’s attire.
She had her horns trimmed,
Her tail was carefully wound and kept away.
She had a beauty like none; beauty dreams couldn’t forge
And inside, a heart hardened like a crucible filled with boiling metals.
Burning with passion and simmering with wicked delusions.
He on the other hand had a fluffy heart weaved with love and fatal ambition;
It was warm and throbbed gently a faint drumbeat,
An odd beat, this time it was an odd rhythm.
They met at a brook
And inside a mirage of nature, they were hidden.
“How long shall this last?” The demon asked impatiently.
“Forever!” moaned his naivety.
And they went on with this journey in paradox;
She dreaming of an abyss with him
And he dreaming of heaven full of her spreading wings.
Strain build and pulled from each end.
A solid rock creaked and cried and there was a crack.
It was the first division; hearts are broken,
Albeit they were slaves of passion,
It brought about a bittersweet freedom
Carved off contempt and longing.
She was a demon, an innocent one
And he lost in chaos; the longing won.
They met again by the babbling brook before twilight,
The last birds stopped just to watch.
A reconciliation that went on to hours a wee
“How will we mend this gaping crevice? Asked thee
I forgive thee and you forgive me”
She answered. “And together we will heal.”
But even after the reconciliation,
Evil is far worse than a hidden demon:
The being fear corrupted him and told him not to let go of her.
“She has wings, and wind comes by times.” It said
“Pluck all her feathers and tame her forever.”
So he took her back to the brook
And at that moment they gazed in the bubbling brook.
When she fell asleep in his deceiving arms;
One after the other, he plucked off her feathers.
And when she woke up to bare wings, she was crushed.
“I need no feathers, but you to fly.” She wept.
“If only I could trap you forever so that you will always be mine.”
He replied, “I have been dreaming of an angel of my own.”
Nothing can stop days, not even our deaths.
The sun rose and fell, again and again
And a beast fierce than fear: greed.
Persuaded him again that in the dead of the night he stole her heart,
A stone he took and a tender heart he gave away.
When she woke up he told her he was sorry
“If only I could have the heart of an angel.”
But she hushed him and replied tenderly
“Forgive me forever, I have deceived you,
I have made you a demon, and you have set me free.”

A poem by Tonny Wandella