Home    

LEGION

by Rula Shin


And holding me
By the throat he said,

"I" am the Shepard of
demons come to set my
horde loose upon your soil,
to sow the seeds of doubt
And cradle the harvest deep
Within your fleshy ground

"I" am the bringer of destruction,
your doppelganger of death
released with your permission
to take root within your spirit,
left loose to spread my rotted
being upon the root of all you
are and come to be

"I" am the infection that spreads
in silence upon your unsuspecting
crops, replacing golden husks with
blackened weed, taking reign of
every inch of land I occupy your
house and choose the seat of kings

Determined to KNOW him and defiant,
I looked him in the eye and asked his name

We who make home of your soul are
Legion my “Lord”, for we are many

01/02/2006

Posted on 01/02/2006
Copyright © 2024 Rula Shin

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by Gregory O'Neill on 01/02/06 at 07:26 PM

No wonder it's said, "the devil is in the numbers." Your word choice and tone here is excellent. Great writing on this event from St.Mark.

Posted by Susan Q Tomas on 01/04/06 at 08:09 PM

This sounds like the beginning of the possession of the man described in Mark 5. The mad man in Gadarenes. If you look at that chapter, the Jesus asks the demon what his name is and they say "We are legion because we are many." In the end, Jesus exercises the demons and puts them in a herd of pigs – which runs into the sea and drowns. Yes, you capture the terror quite vividly here. I am curious as to what inspired this poem.

Posted by Ashok Sharda on 01/05/06 at 05:04 PM

We are not ONE. We are a multitude, appearing and disappearing depending on the association at any given point in time. You have recognized and presented this multitude as one single unit in “I”, in the first person, introducing herself in the negative role she tends to play, ‘the Shepard of demons’, the harbinger of the negative impressions epitomized in the ‘horde’ to ‘sow the seeds of doubt’, reinforcing the impression deep, creating more energy sources in the shape of associations, without as well within. This multitude, as you have realized, is ‘the bringer of destruction’. In the absence of a self that we realize and recognize as the Intending Self (the one we intend to become,) this multitude, this CROWD, is bound to “...spread…
in silence upon your unsuspecting
crops, replacing golden husks with
blackened weed, taking reign of
every inch of land I occupy your
house and choose the seat of kings” - Yes, eventually they become the master of the house, killing the ‘self’ one intends to become. But your intending self is alive and ‘determined to KNOW him and defiant, I looked him in the eye and asked his name. We who make home of your soul are Legion my “Lord”, for we are many’ - Not only have you illustrated ‘what is’ of the so called ‘self’ we recognize as ‘I ‘and the mechanism of its creation and maintenance, but in the process you have also interpreted this famous parable of Jesus giving it a new dimension. One needs to rebel against this CROWD. One needs to stand as a ONE person army against this deceitful and destructive Legion.

Posted by Chris Sorrenti on 01/06/06 at 03:20 PM

Quite appropriate as we are supposedly in the "end times." 2012 isn't that far away...stay tuned.

Return to the Previous Page
 

pathetic.org Version 7.3.2 May 2004 Terms and Conditions of Use 0 member(s) and 2 visitor(s) online
All works Copyright © 2024 their respective authors. Page Generated In 0 Second(s)