Asmodeus
\nVCS <\/p>\n
He sat alone
\nUnder the heat of a thousand suns
\nUnder the desert
\nWhere he had been thrown
\nHunched with his arms
\nHugging his warty, broken legs
\nHe had turned to stone
\nBuried under dunes of sand
\nfrom the long, long ago <\/p>\n
There had been a mighty king
\nWho had had a mighty ring
\nGiven to him by the angels themselves
\nTo make a temple to rule the world
\nAnd to rule the self <\/p>\n
Asmodeus had come
\nHe of the stone
\nWalking like a man
\nHe couldn’t hide his limp
\nhe could only give it to another
\nFor a time and time
\nTo give him the semblance
\nOf one who was what he liked to call
\nA hell of a ‘Smooth Operator’ <\/p>\n
‘Let me help you build your temple,’
\nHe said to the King with the furrowed brow
\nThe stones had ceased to fit together
\nThe beams were broken
\nThe edifice falling around him
\nWhat was mighty was now dying<\/p>\n
‘Leave me be, I need no help unless you are a magician!’
\nThe man with the hidden limp
\nDidn’t bother to answer; because he was no magician
\nHe was a creature of fell magic himself
\nHe did not want the shrewd King to scent his deception <\/p>\n
With the stolen nimbleness of a hind
\nHe leapt onto cypress pillars
\n‘Ah ha!’ Asmodeus exclaimed, his eyes twinkling <\/p>\n
The King thought to himself,
\n‘His eyes are as bright as the sky over an oasis,
\nHe’s a magician, there is no doubt and my problems are ended!’ <\/p>\n
Asmodeus, his black hair, shining in the sun
\nProduced a copper wedge
\nAll carbuncled in green barnacles
\n‘Here’s the problem, a curse was laid on your temple.’ <\/p>\n
He tossed the wedge to the King who dropped it when it burned his hands
\nand scored a sigil into his index finger. <\/p>\n
‘Let the building re-commence!’ Ordered the demon Asmodeus<\/p>\n
And so it was that the demon won the confidence of the king
\nwhose angelic ring could control the world of any spirit
\nand the canny king didn’t suspect a thing!<\/p>\n
Asmodeus gave his name as a lie and became the confidant of the king
\nWho believed him sent from God
\nRather than the devil’s plaything
\nUntil one day the king had to go away
\nAnd his most prized possession he gave to the one he trusted most
\nThe King of Demons: Asmodeus<\/p>\n
When the canny king returned to his throne he found it occupied
\nBy the demon man with hair of black and eyes of blue
\nHis ring on his hand, His robes on his shoulders
\nHis wives attending him like he was their beloved
\nAnd Asmodeus used his hellish powers to throw the king
\na thousand leagues
\nlaughing in glee
\nand eating the king’s own figs<\/p>\n
A thousand leagues was not far enough to throw the canny king
\nWho walked over the blazing sand and through the wastelands
\nUntil he returned to the lands
\nThat had once been under his command
\nHis eyes blazed with glints of red
\nFrom the alembic flames he had been tortured in
\nHe walked into his throne room in begger’s rags
\nBut no one stopped him, one look froze them in place <\/p>\n
Asmodeus had grown fat on the king’s throne
\nHe drooled wine and his eyes drooped with sleepy disconcern
\nHe did not recognize the man before him as the rightful king
\nUntil the man in rags walked to him and sliced off his finger
\nThe only way to get it off the now bloated member
\nThe canny king stamped Asmodeus between the eyes
\nWith the Pentalpha sigil and his demise <\/p>\n
Now the demon was no longer lord
\nHe was subject and bound as the other hoards
\nTo obey the will of the king
\nThe true son of the true king before him <\/p>\n
‘Go forth into the desert and dig a tomb in the sand.
\nDig until you can dig no more
\nThen never move again.’ <\/p>\n
The demon staggered from the hall and his
\nShroud of glamour fell from the eyes of all
\nAnd they shook their heads and rubbed their eyes
\nAs they watched Asmodeus’s tail leave the hall,
\nhis legs limping, his bulk bursting his scaly skin
\nHe walked far into the desert
\nTo dig his own grave
\nWith his taloned hands
\nAt the King’s command <\/p>\n
And sat and listened to the winds howling above him
\nuntil his ears filled with sand
\nAnd his lungs along with them
\nThen he ceased to think or move
\nAnd turned to stone
\nUnder the dunes <\/p>\n
And that was how he was found
\nmore than a thousand years later
\nBy an alchemist who would quickly become greater
\nThanks to the power
\nOf the stone demon
\nWho whispered wisdom in his ear
\nExactly as much as he needed to hear
\nUntil Asmodeus was free once more <\/p>\n
Plodding and evil
\nThe canny king was gone
\nHis temple long since with him
\nBut between the demons eyes
\nThe burned sigil
\nAnd frozen stone joints
\nStill bite into him. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Asmodeus VCS He sat alone Under the heat of a thousand suns Under the desert Where he had been thrown Hunched with his arms Hugging his warty, broken legs He had turned to stone Buried under dunes of sand from the long, long ago There…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2133,2204,2205,2203,2206,52],"class_list":["post-33413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","tag-2017-poetry-marathon","tag-asmodeus","tag-pentalpha","tag-poetry-story","tag-solomon","tag-virginia-carraway-stark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33858,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33413\/revisions\/33858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}