Simon Harrison
Malleus Maleficarum
The practice of my Craft is skilled, acute;
sharp as the needle of fear that my presence
instils. Evil I divine: the sick twitch
of its fork within me tells me its ilk,
and I heed that call, suffering no witch
to escape the hell of my tools. With fire I root
out matter for my Masters: they all talk -
Satan, icy, carnal - other such unpleasance.
Sometimes it takes a touch of pain to stir
their tongues - to prompt into the cold naked light
that dark complicity I see and feel -
but what of that? My instruments are mete.
I too am instrumental, and the weal
I sear into their flesh serves only to deter
- I take no pleasure in it - merely treat
it as my work, a painful duty, Godly, Right.
Scrupulously I seek out Deviance,
pick unerringly the unprotected freak
to stoke the fear that is my Power,
the fire that is your communal desire
(secret, sacrificial, at last - the hour
come - alight), and this my iron obedience:
to prune the human tree of what is weak,
consume it in the crucible of God’s fierce ire.
Such coin as, incidental, comes my way
I palm for my pains and take as rightful tithe,
but property I pass on whole, intact,
to increment my status in the Church;
rumour may accrue me rich, but the fact
is I account my wealth for naught but fuel - my pay
is what I see in peasant eyes - the Search
goes on, and my Gift one to make your dark heart writhe.
Page(s) 37
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