A Change For the Better

by CathieT
(Hampshire, UK)

And the rain rained much longer and harder and wetter,
The drowning of rats and the drenching of men,
The thunder destroyed what we heard in the maelstrom,
The pounding and crashing again and again.

My heart was of lead, my mind torn asunder,
The wind lashed my skin, flayed me hard with the spray,
My task now forgotten I fought for my life,
As the wounds on my fingers exploded in pain.

That night was the night I saw things ne’er imagined,
Of demons and nightmares that rode on the swell,
I prayed as I battled these visions of hatred,
But Satan did mock me and took me to Hell.

Those devils spat ice and they shattered my spirit,
My friends and my family mere dust in the past,
My nightmare was growing, my sanity slipping,
And each breath my last breath, my last breath, my last…

Slashed the whip on my back and the blood fountained upwards,
The swearing and laughter of things steeped in sin,
My anguish brought joy as my skin fell apart
And these cankerous creatures fell on me again.

Now the passing of time is a cruel sadist’s jape,
Every blood boiling second sears flesh from my bone,
Distant memories of sea and my ship fade each moment,
I’m lost in this God cursed hell on my own.

But as madness consumed every fragment of thought,
I believed every word the flies spat in my ear,
I believed God was dead and the devils were saviours,
And that all human kind had got nothing to fear.

And the beatings and torture have stopped, thank the master,
He knew I was worthy and one of the few,
One of only a handful of mortals worth taking,
Of leaving the old life and starting anew.

Now my skin grows back thicker and darker and stronger,
My eyes glow with fire ‘neath the horns of my head,
No pain do I feel now I stand with the others,
As hunting I go with the legions of dead.

Yes I howl as the sea crashes harshly around me,
The wind screams and urges me on with the fray,
A man chokes in pain as his ship sinks beneath him,
And roaring in triumph I snatch him away.

I am stronger than any I thought could have bested me,
Stronger more powerful, many I slay,
I’m a devil, a being of awe and respect,
I’m Beelzebub, pray you don't meet me one day….