Sunday, 4 January 2009

Never Trust a Demon.


Never Trust a Demon.


“Give me a skin,” the demon said
“With a stylish body and a fancy head.
And in return I’ll grant a wish:
Whatever you like from a car to a fish.”

So I laboured for days with bodies and knives
on a bench that I borrowed from Frankenstein
and put it together with stitches and glue
till the suit that I made looked a lot like you.

I gave it the demon and he acted pleased
up ‘til I said “Can I have my wish, please?”
when he offered me one of his Paddington stares
and said, with a passable baleful glare:

“No.”

24 comments:

Beth P. said...

oh that's fun...for the reader...not so sure about for the author!

great story, though, and thank you for sharing it.

My experience is that the demons are so clever that just when you make up your mind to never trust another...they take on a new skin.

aargh!

Amias (ljm and liquidplastic) said...

This is such a fun read, next time get it in writing ;)!

Anonymous said...

This was a lot of good macabre fun to read! And I love Amias' comment about "get it in writing" - how about with blood!!

spacedlaw said...

The skin modelled the demon?
Clever. I like "Paddington stares"

BT said...

Great fun Rach. Superb illustration too, as always. I, too, like the Paddington Stare! The smile on the demon looks like one of yours!

Rachel Green said...

haha! Thank you folks :)

Gina - The demon has fewer missing teeth than I do!

Anonymous said...

great!

SandyCarlson said...

So like a demon!

I enjoyed that. Thanks.

sgreerpitt said...

devilishly delightful.

Anonymous said...

Humor abounds in this poem. I can't believe you could like the sweet little Paddington with a demon but you did and did it well.

floreta said...

funny! it reminded me of shel silverstein for whatever reason.

Rachel Green said...

Thanks!
I'll have to look up that reference ;)

Unknown said...

I, too, liked "Paddington stares." Superb writing. The end is perfect, as you knew it would be.

Rachel Green said...

Contrariwise, yes ;)

Tumblewords: said...

A great take on the prompt - I wondered where those skin covers came from! :)

Anonymous said...

And that is just what you would expect from a demon.
And a few people I know.

Rachel Green said...

Indeed so.

Thank you both :)

Anonymous said...

Hhhmm...
so I'm thinking you didn't get your wish 'cause the demon's suit looked like me???

Really cute...the final "no" was perfect.

Rachel Green said...

Thanks Angie. You got the gist of it :)

Anonymous said...

Smiling at how you cleverly used Paddington and Frankenstein in the same poem! Fun to read. My first time here via OSI.

Rachel Green said...

Thanks Gel -- nice to meet you :)

Anonymous said...

Macabre but a great read. I had such fun reading it aloud!

frenzied entropies

And please do visit the Poetry Train being run each Monday!

Anonymous said...

can only think of halloween on christmas...thou another great story... just the same luv yrs!!

Rachel Green said...

Thank you kindly :)