Demon in the Bottle
By John Herlihy

The demon in the bottle has been suddenly let loose,
Running around town like a tarred and feathered goose,
Feathers dripping that sticky darkness every which way,
Hawking and bawling with a mouthful of noise to say.
A fiend is what it is now completely beyond anyone’s control.
The cork and bottle cast aside and held privately in escrow,
In case the world could find somewhere an honest gentleman,
To tie up that demon with a noose and lead it back to the pen.

The demon flouted a lot of nonsense sounding as pie in the sky,
Like a chicken flapping around with wings that couldn’t fly,
Uttering oaths of death and dying its stone heart could summon,
The demon himself a sign that the end of the world was comin’.
Vast multitudes of demons heard the arch-demon’s primitive cries;
Finally something to believe in as they muttered savage replies.
The reek of raw evil gladly invades hearts blackened beyond repair;
To gather into a formidable force with which nothing can compare.

Now those of you reading may be surprised to find out and learn,
That the world still has rabbit paths that lead around every turn.
Now these fiends gathered forces and ran for their money’s worth,
Ripping, tearing, and devouring the extent of civilization’s turf.
And so there you have it, the world once laid out like Chinese silk,
Speckles of moonlight falling upon earth like drippings of buttermilk.
Now the earth lies in waiting with its arms wide open upon the ground,
To be ravaged without mercy, not a single drop of innocence to be found.