Reflections on Dorian Gray, Pt IX: Released From this Evil
by Michael Doyle

A chain smoked cigar puffed on to make amends
Between two estranged who had once been friends
To be young again and to set sail into the dawn
Until one realizes it best to let these days be gone

Death comes at the hand of unruly emotions
Regardless of discipline nor deep-seated devotion
The rapier nicks the neck bleeding Dorian's evil
Practicing the preaching of an un-feared Devil

An old friend sees through the charade of devastation
Held in the clutch of stronghanded near strangulation
Setting at last the portrait on its blaze of hellfire
Just prior to locking up Dorian in his wanton desires

Even such a god will welcome the freedom of his own death
As by evil transformed, he takes his last bitter breath
The toys in the damnable beast play in this dark attic
And know the tears of wishes met with a force so tragic

These locked away as they are in a gothic mansion's cage
Are the ways put aside as cardinal sins beyond sloth and rage
No longer sworn as willingly as an oath to that crimson Devil
Dorian is at last released from his enslavement to his evil 

(c) October 30, 2021  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved