The Devil Wears Good Manners

The devil

is rarely loud

 

He is

immaculately

dressed

 

Well read

 

Patient

 

His voice

never rises

 

He knows

anger

is a language

spoken by

amateurs

 

He speaks instead

in reason

and compromise

in things

that sound

almost true

 

He does not

lose arguments

 

He simply

changes tactics

until your certainty

mistakes him

for wisdom

 

He can wear

the face

of compassion

the smile of justice

and the vocabulary

of virtue

 

He has borrowed

every mask

humanity

has ever trusted

 

People believe

they can bargain

with him

 

Negotiate

 

Leave

with more

than they brought

 

As though evil

has ever signed

a contract

without reading

the fine print

 

Entire civilizations

have mistaken

comfort for truth

 

Many souls

were never

stolen

 

They

volunteered

 

Certain

they were making

the intelligent choice

 

The devil

has studied us

since before

we invented

our first excuse

 

He knows

our appetite

better than

we know our names

 

He does not

need chains

 

He merely asks

what you desire

and waits for you

to build

your own prison

 

So

when someone

appears too perfect

too polished and certain

 

Listen

 

Not only

to what they promise

but to what they require

you to surrender

 

Because evil

rarely demands

your life

 

It asks instead

for one compromise

followed by another

until there is nothing

left worth saving

 

Yet…

 

There remains

one thing

the devil

has never learned

to counterfeit

 

Hope

 

Not the

sentimental kind

 

The stubborn

irrational

unprofitable

hope

 

One that survives

after every illusion

has been burned away

 

The hope

that refuses to sell

its conscience

for certainty

 

Perhaps

that is why

he spends

so much time

teaching us despair

 

For even

the smallest ember

can ignite

an entire world

 

And that

must terrify

hell itself