The Imp of the Perverse
He asked, “Why not take
that jewelry from your dead
mother’s safe deposit box?”
Now you have a lovely emerald.
Your siblings never found out.
He said your spouse wouldn’t
suspect a thing if you invited
that cute business associate
over to your hotel room. You
still smile to yourself about that one.
And when he told you
to send the fat cats a message,
you felt no anxiety pushing
a button in the voting booth
for someone who could start a war.
So when his confident voice says:
“Twenty stories, that’s not so far.
Don’t you know you’re immortal?”
Go ahead and have an adventure.
He’s never steered you wrong.
Chris Bullard
Chris Bullard’s chapbook Leviathan was published in 2016 by Finishing Line Press, and Kattywompus Press published High Pulp in the winter of 2016. His work has appeared in publications such as 32 Poems, Rattle, Pleiades, River Styx and Nimrod.