Better to Reign In Hell

Better to reign in hell
Better to reign in hell
Heart in hand passed clasp of pain
In dark lowland that set bad blood in veins

Burning, like penal fires roused to strain
The jagged-toothed skyline braced with crosses
The golden dawn
Lay lost to mist where

Emboldened thorns
Made their bed with toppled stones
He closed His eyes
Sunken to dream there
Of crow-black skies
And a great white empty throne

Horror stalked the bilious fogs
That balked his visions
He licked the spittle from the cheeks of the wry
And drifted back to when His stung its target

The sneer of Michael on a glorious high
Of angel dust and Virtue by his side
Drowning in the past
That downfall seemed like yesterday

Though blurred moons passed
As enemies in high places laughed
Moved to mirrors cracked with heavy lines
He rose snowblind, through shifting sands of time

Erased the trace and taste of bitter wines
The grapes of wrath grew fat on the vine
She came to Him
A little whip of tantrums

Thrashed on velvet skins
That lines Her wishbone Henge
Her name was Sin
A warming spurt of mantras

Splashed on occult tongues
That whispered sweet revenge

For the shame of their crawl from grace
Cold and hollow as the grave
And for a rape and ruinous scourge
Spared for souls that shared God's worship

For now their throats coated notes with dirge
That poured from parapets to the pits below
Drowning in the past
A wretched scream like yesterday

Died at last

With the rising of the revenant dark
All sharpened claws and blunt discharge
"I shall bow no more to the dogs of the Lord
Tearing at my carcass heart

I shall fall to my knees only at the keyholes
Of Virtue slipping into bondage masks...
Freewill made me better to reign in hell"
And with new wings
Unfurled and spoken
He took to things
That would desecrate the world
The seduction of both woman and man
For a bastard masterplan
Drowning out the past
Fool Fates unwound cruel yesterdays
beneath the stars
That staggered from the blast