The Nitheful II

"He was capable of being so nice to the children, to have them become so fond of him, to bring them sugar and to remember small details in their daily lives and to do things we would genuinely admire...And then next to that...the crematoria of smoke , and these children , tomorrow or in half an hour, he is going to send them there, and that is where the anomaly lay.
(Aushwitz Survivor) 

I. 
He was handsome and pleasant, 
always well dressed, 
whistling Wagnerian melodies, 
starched shirt and shiny boots. 

"Der Zwelling?" 
(He was always looking for twins.) 

Always, never far away, were the chimneys, 
their constant streams of smoke, 
carrying away those whistled melodies, 
on smoky air, 
along with the souls he sent there. 

(He himslef died years later, a haunted, hunted man.) 

II.
Behind his back they called him the Pope, 
living, as he did, in his huge house, 
so far away from the streets he ruled, 
they all said he wasn't really one of them, 
arranging to send people to their deaths, never blinking an eye, 
a simple wave of his hand, 
a nod of his head in a particular direction. 

He would die in the streets he lived so far from.

III. 
He hunted for years, 
all his victims, beautufl and young, 
years later, he would say that he was looking for people who should have known better, 
He left them mostly in the woods, 
the animals took what he left behind, 
visitng periodically unitl there was nothing left to play with. 

(charming, even handsome, in the end he could not even control his own tears.) 

IV.
No one ever thought it could be who it turned out to be. 
True, he was much bigger than those his age but surely not a murderer? 
He called it "thieving" and the night he chose was perfect, 
windy enough to carry away the sound and really dark so no one could see him. 
He went in and before he left he had stabbed her dozens of times and left her for dead, 
dead on the floor with the broken knife still in her chest. 

(he brought what was left home, stashed in his attic, to use for later pleasure.) 

Up in his attic, 
to remember his power, 
the thrill of playing God, 
when he was caught he readily admitted what he had done, 
calmly and without a hint of guilt. 

(his father had to leave the room and vomitted in a bathroom down the hall.) 

Evil hides in plain sight, 
in smoky places, 
sometimes in adolescent faces, 
but it always comes to light. 


T. S. Deary 
June 2022 - July 2023