Love Song of the Demogorgon by Jenny Molberg


 
 
            Hither the sound has borne us-to the realm

            of Demogorgon, and the mighty portal...

           -Shelley, Prometheus Unbound

 

Love is the world reversed. Nothing but a scribble
in a drizzling cave. Good Christians

do not speak my name but still I rise inside
your body, slither amphibian from your lips.

Don’t look at me. I’m chaos—
despite the bit of earth left in me,

I resemble nothing. Face like a starfish.
Fingers like rodents in flight. My mind

made of two minds, I change.
Two-headed ruler of a twofold world.

The higher mind flays me, that shadow box
I play inside—I, its mean puppet,

moving by night. Come for me
with your nail-studded bat.

I will make you do the most terrible things.
 
 
 
Jenny Molberg is the author of the poetry collections Marvels of the Invisible (winner of the 2014 Berkshire Prize, Tupelo Press, 2017) and Refusal (forthcoming, LSU Press). She teaches creative writing at the University of Central Missouri, where she directs Pleiades Press and edits Pleiades magazine. Find her online at jennymolberg.com.