Pepper Man Claims A Soul

Here's a strange one written not long ago. The verses came slowly based on a few fractured dream memories and a strange meditation wherein I saw a literal "past life viewer" machine. Not all angels are purely sweetness and light; but, they teach nevertheless. In the viewer, he could claim my soul as eternal husband - but only if he kept a promise to return to a life of truth and eventually, the Light of God. I called this "pepper man" because his spirit knowledge sears into the heart like a burning hot pepper. One bite and you want to scream. One swallow and you're hooked.

We watched him in indigo shades hung low,
timid but bold, alone in the night;
Past viewer fast forward and looked in the light,
Your past now is future he said with a bow;
Pepper man's come on timetable so tight,
dragging chains in spark to put on your show.

pepper man's words were like jalapeno spray,
burning, stinging, painfully numbing;
haunting repetition, past loves strumming,
pepper man taunted with a cruel display;
steely grey locks and snide venom running,
piercing soul for play.

pepper man laughed in half-hidden furor,
pepper man toked, ticked the counting beads more;
stretched spindle boots toward the door,
tipped his hat and cursed the mirror;
he said I'll take you forever plus four,
but pepper man couldn't stand reflected to score.

blanched and shriveled in almond pursuit,
tree shade blinded by the soul of the One;
flight without shadow, no human has won,
pepper man tripped by his own spindly boot;
pepper man cried once and it was done,
salving his guilt with strange torment, voice of tin-pan flute.

And he dances in moonlight, heart still of stone,
rattling necklace of hulled pepper skin;
stringing rhyme with strands of old pepper thin,
hollowed and clicking with dried ancient bone;
transparent as fairy wings, calling up kin,
within each eye burned an orange flame alone.

pepper man's primitive gaze made me run,
cold as atlantis, hot as vesuvius;
shivering in the irresistable trap of that lust,
baring breasts with only cyclops penetration;
ashes to ashes, dust to dust,
he claimed my soul in a rusty eon.

pepper man raged in a sinuous manner,
leering with sleazy glee;
is this the promise of an angel's tree?
helpless i fell as the boot stomped matter;
angel or devil I can no longer see,
pepper man glared and his hat marched madder.

All bets called off, all contracts expired,
pepper man turned the key;
star chariot running in a cosmic sea,
closing fire-tempered lids, so tired;
pepper man dreamed his strings back to me,
claiming a rightful inheritance sired.