The Devil Smith

The mighty hammer beats and shadows fall from the gale
Flames scalding, smelting iron, blood and will
Running more ardent than dragon’s rage
The vehemently zealot smith, he wades

Molding designs that reek of the vileness of his heart
Of blades that can only be quenched by the blood of a maiden sage
Abhorrence, abomination festers its way
To the core of prodigiously talented smithy from the dark lake

And his schemes grow bolder with each passing moon
From fashioning iron to tinkering with bleeding clay
What is flesh of a human but a fickle fodder for ants?
Yet somehow it keeps the soul in its place

And men of faith, they shun the creature locked in a hole
From surely, you mustn’t even say his name
What sort of a craftsman play with forces of being?
Speak not of it lightly for he’s the Devil Smith

The beast hammers on, passing his days
A solitary existence of one shunned away
For even if he has a human heart
Surely the thing has never known love

Until one day, a damsel led astray
Her heart broken to and by a million ways
Undertook the quest towards the Devil of the dark lake
For only he could piece her heart back again

The Devil saw her and the pieces of her heart
Her heat so very gentle of one still drawing breath
And it did for him what scorching fires of hell never did
It thawed out his heart from its cold cage

The kindle on the lake never burnt as bright
For something different now fueled the blaze
No more did it reek of evil, it smelt sweet
And for the first time the smithy failed

For the heart it just could not be recast
For all his talent the Devil Smith knew that
For he could work metal, flesh and soul
But even he couldn’t reform something destroyed by love

Yet he could not let down the one he adored
Crudely he cut through his own chest
So he replaced the broken pieces with his whole heart
And the lady believed he had worked a miracle again

With a kind word, she left him alone
Deafening silence followed, nothing beating in his chest
All her had with him were the pieces of her heart
The only thing he had truly touched by love