Dennis Villelmi- A Poem

"The Ballad and the Back Road"

I sang the ballad corrective to myself on that frantic
Night; the night I was called at work and told that our
Home had just become some malignant Cathar
Stronghold and therefore I should leave my labors in
Haste and race back, as Satan was waiting, silently. 
I call it the ballad corrective because grandmother sang
It after taking the switch to me whenever I'd stood as a
Bad brat, fallen from her grace.
Doing fifteen over the speed limit, I saw myself as a droplet of
Blood coursing through the vein off the main highway, bound
For the backside of the Almighty, where the malignancy was;
Saw night as the side God hides from the faithful, where
Heresy is laid bare against the orthodox forward which
A hideous number of bloodlines have bowed down before,
Never having once been corrected with the switch, or the
Belt or denial of supper...Supper!  Yes, Satan chose me
For his Last Supper before the Lord turns his back to the
Sun and begins singing into His shadow of the genesis
Collective where another world will be made in six days, with
The punished returning to work. 



Dennis Villelmi is a writer whose work has appeared both on online magazines, such as Dagda Publishing and Dead Snakes, as well as in anthologies.  He lives in Appalachia, home of the rattlesnake and the copperhead.