"What is your name? 'Legion,' he replied." — Luke 8:30

Let me have your abyss, I said,
let me have your fear.
Give me the voices in your head
that sobs will not dislodge.
Give me the irons that tear your wrists,
the rocks you drag, the devils without number.

I will turn you inside out, I said.

We know who you are, the demons shrieked.
They swarmed — a locust cloud — around him.
He tore at his throat; I saw inside him then,
a broken vessel, the rotten seeds of death
clustered in his heart.

The whole village turned out to see him
clothed and in his true mind.
Beaming, but bruised, he was an innocent,
inviting all to share his joy, swinging his
chains into the sea under the bright sky.

Leave us! they cried to me.
What have we to do with you?
We saw Lucifer fall like lightning
from the sky; we do not know
what havoc you've unleashed.