Bill Coyle

An Awkward Phase

Sex can be salvation: once I finished
The Satanic Bible, that glorious mixture
of Freud and Nietzsche garnished with batwings,
I snapped up its sequel, The Satanic Rituals,
at the same bookstore in Salem, Mass.

I got as far as the instructions for the Black Mass.
There, with the forces of darkness gathering
around me in my bedroom (I swear I sensed some of them
reading over my shoulder) I read how the Sacrament
was to be celebrated on the body of a naked woman .

Of course, I didn’t have a naked woman;
and of course, if I did have a naked woman,
(miracles do happen) I wouldn’t bother
with some kitschy parody of Holy Communion.
I closed the book and read no further.

< back | next >

 

Although Bill Coyle no longer dabbles in Satanism, there is an allusion to the prince of darkness in the title of his (Coyle's, not Satan's) first poetry collection, The God of this World to His Prophet. In addition, he (Coyle, not Satan) recognizes Black Sabbath's Paranoid as one of the best albums of all time.