Page 1 of King of Iron Hearts
Welcome to the Dark Side
Where the good go bad
And the only lessons they teach
Are those in corruption
The devil is a gentleman
How else do you think
He lured all those
Sinning souls
To hell?
People don’t talk enough about devils
With their silver tongues
How the greatest sin they commit
Is that thing they do
With their precious metal mouths
I was born to the demons that hounded me.
They wanted my submission to their corruption like blood ink on paper signed with my name.
I could have run,
But where is the power in that?
Instead, I became a demon myself in order to master them all.
Own your demons.
The devil wasn’t horns and talons
Brimstone and ash.
He was golden and gorgeous
Sinning and sex.
And I was his latest victim.
My mother thought I was a waste of space
In her womb
And the thought didn’t improve when I was born.
My father thought I was a prince and raised me to be
King.
He had faith in everything I did.
My best friend didn’t speak with words
But everything he ever told me
With his eyes and his actions
Taught me I was worthy of love.
My sister told me once that our mother
Educated her in self-hatred
And steeped her deep in eternal doubt
Because if a mother can’t love her child
Doesn’t that make her right?
Why is it that the negative words of one
Can so easily outweigh the good of every other?
A lion will never be a pet.
You can put a collar on it,
Lock it up at night,
And call it pretty as much as you
Want.
But the real animal is you,
For caging something that was meant to be
Free.
Break up with your boyfriend.
My father taught me with his fists
My mother with her heavy sighs
My uncle took me to church
Where he taught me everything I should despise
My father hit me to keep me silent
My mother didn’t notice he was violent
My uncle made me one of the choir boys
Whom I discovered were all his toys
What happens when you are told to respect your elders, but they never show any respect for you?
Sometimes there is a two-way mirror
Between you
And the rest.
Every day you watch the others live their lives
Talk, laugh, and touch
A unit
A family
An entire world
But
Behind the glass
You are alone
Always
Acutely unseen.
Family isn’t in the blood
It’s the echo of each name
That sounds with the beat of your heart.
Brother,
You will never truly die
Because
Brother,
I wear your friendship on my vest
Like a badge
Brother,
When you went
I thought about going with you
But brother,
I knew you wouldn’t want me
Brother,
I knew wherever you were
Heaven, Hell, or Valhalla
You were saving me a seat beside you
When the time came for me to join you
Brotherhood
Is made by blood, sweat, and spit
Forged in the fire of shared adversity
Strong as titanium
Common as iron
Man-made
An awkward hug that lasts too long
A secret handshake full of history
A ride side by side connected by the wind
Man-held
the respect of brothers
the tightly knotted weave of friendship
something more than family
something beautiful that only exists between
Man to man
It’s the balance she craves.
The soft core under immovable steel
The rough against the slide of silk skin
The coarse voice speaking in dulcet tones
A woman wants a man like a weapon
That could never be turned against her
One only she can wield
When she needs that strength to be her sword
And his love her shield
I just like being bad
The guy people don’t get
The one they want to fuck
The one they don’t want to fight
And the one you just can’t kill
I just like being bad
A man with the road beneath his bike
And the taste of whiskey on his breath
The one who kisses like he brawls
Who walks with a ‘I gotta secret’ kinda swagger
I just like being bad
But more than that, I like being bad for you
My good girl with a taste for something wild
You can suck the danger from my lips
While I keep you safe in my arms
Because no one fucks with you
Not even me
How the bad boy gets the girl.
I’ve been a cowboy my whole life
Workin’ to wrangle
A soul so wild
It bucks against the red ropes that bind it
Knocks into the bone bars that cage it
I’ve been keepin’ it steady for so many years
Just waitin’ for you to walk on by
And bring it to heel with the swish of your hair
And the sight of your smile.
Behind her ears
The gentle slope of her neck
The underside of her jaw
I want to know how she tastes
But I am already convinced
She tastes like cherries
There was nothing gentle in her beauty
Nothing soft or romantic
She was an exclamation mark
The study of her exquisiteness punctuated by
A punch to the solar plexus
A different kind of pretty.
Sometimes a wild soul
Doesn’t yearn for open fields
It wants strong hands and stern words
To break under hard rules
Until the restless chaos in their hearts is soothed
Their loud spirit is quiet
And for a moment, blissfully at peace.
The art of Domination and submission.
Sometimes I catch my daughter watching the animal channel, her hands curled into claws and her lips pulled back to reveal tiny teeth. She growls sometimes, but nothing prepares me for the eventual ferocity of her roar.
