04-29-2020, 05:29 AM
Her All-seeing Servant
I hang at this story’s center,
never moving, never starting
anything. I only answer
questions put to me (though every
query is identical) to
which each time I answer with
a strict and perfect truth.
In this, I’m like what embodies
me: a common mirror hanging
in my mistress’ chamber which
displays true pictures of what stands
before me and could also tell her
all that passes in her kingdom.
If she asked another question–
am I just, or kindest, or
most loveable– I’d have to tell her
but my mistress’ only question
to me is if she’s the fairest
and I tell her, to her sorrow,
rooting envy in her soul.
For I am, of course, a Demon
trapped, she thinks, to do her bidding,
driving her to poison her
step-daughter of the white complexion
little knowing that it leads to
red-hot shoes, a foretaste of
the measures we shall dance in Hell.
I hang at this story’s center,
never moving, never starting
anything. I only answer
questions put to me (though every
query is identical) to
which each time I answer with
a strict and perfect truth.
In this, I’m like what embodies
me: a common mirror hanging
in my mistress’ chamber which
displays true pictures of what stands
before me and could also tell her
all that passes in her kingdom.
If she asked another question–
am I just, or kindest, or
most loveable– I’d have to tell her
but my mistress’ only question
to me is if she’s the fairest
and I tell her, to her sorrow,
rooting envy in her soul.
For I am, of course, a Demon
trapped, she thinks, to do her bidding,
driving her to poison her
step-daughter of the white complexion
little knowing that it leads to
red-hot shoes, a foretaste of
the measures we shall dance in Hell.
Non-practicing atheist