Demons in Our Midst
By John Herlihy

I
Demons have invaded into the center of our world;
They appear unwittingly out of the morning mist.
They cover their faces to mask the face of their horror;
They chant false incantations that heighten the terror.
They have arrived uninvited and now refuse to depart;
They strike the civilized world within its vulnerable heart.

II
At the heart of their intent lies random death and mindless destruction;
They pursue their diabolic objectives with no sign of reduction.
Every day of the week, these beasts deliberately take on different form;
Old world chameleons primed to desecrate the universal norm.
They reveal themselves as evil jinn of the night on the prowl;
They seize every opportunity to manifest as wolves intending to howl.

III
The dreadful demons are shadows in every nook and corner,
If only someone somewhere could emerge to be a fair warner.
The shadows lengthen across the ground with the passing of the day;
The nighttime hides their cloaks, the streetlights are in their pay.
In the light, people are not expecting the threat of darkness,
Not even the light can protect them from such sheer madness.

IV
As if some key has unlocked a door into the other side of reality,
Through this door they could freely enter the realm of insanity.
They seem to have the strength of a thousand villains,
Who in killing one innocent person are killing a thousand victims.
People going about their busy lives living in quiet dread,
In the prime of their lives, they are not expecting to be dead.

V
These demons are dark angels in pursuit of their perverted instruction;
They are focused on their own path leading only to destruction.
They come from the dark side of the world where there is no light,
Demons they have become, no man among them in their own right.
One minute time spread before their victims under a watchful gaze,
The next minute they lie in the arms of a stranger dying in a haze.

VI
These demons are wedded to unspeakable crimes by more than desire;
They are consumed in flames of hatred in the midst of a hellish fire.
They listen to no reason and have no respect for people’s rights;
Their faith reeks of blood and tears under the cover of the night.
They will pursue their unholy objectives until they are forced to imagine
Death in consequence of the wicked deeds of the willful assassin.

VII
The sign of the times shows its ugly face; the world becomes inverted,
When humans turn into beasts as human nature becomes perverted.
Random cruelty invades a kind world killing everything in sight,
They roam like monsters who appear fiendishly out of the night,
Ready to devour any and all that prove an obstacle in their way
They slaughter without mercy both themselves and their prey.

VIII
The souls of these assassins have shriveled as dry as ancient parchment;
Their emotions have hardened as pale and bleached as desert bone.
They care nothing for the pleasantry and fulfillment of honest living;
They wander the world as sagebrush, their determination as hard as stone.
Their sole purpose one and the same, their hatred and fanaticism to please;
Their destruction and death gather force to bring the world to its knees.

IX
The world’s collective actions have initiated fermenting animosities;
The world’s destiny continues to unleash unspeakable atrocities.
Every created thing must express its true nature denoted in its name,
Just as the night heralds darkness; they are one and the same.
The world has created demons; they have earned the designation;
They roam within our midst as a plague within every civilized nation.

X
We wait patiently for the day when the world is swept free of sorrow;
Beasts will no longer impersonate men with their confidence on borrow.
When the sun rises in the East, it will betoken a new beginning;
The beasts within us cast aside as a result of their heinous sinning.
They are demons locked away in a lead jar never again to reappear,
Demons in the mist, deserving agony and death at the point of a spear.