Lucifer

Lucifer is my friend

he is fiendishly clever

he laughs while the world is on fire

and his eyes light up

like fissures in the cone

of the volcano

he makes dark humor

darker

sharpening his wit on us

and toasting our weaknesses 

with his latte

he walks the knife’s edge

between daylight and darkness 

capturing visions 

and scattering them like tephra 

he is an anticyclone

turning the Mediterranean

into kindling

he likes it when the storm winds

blow through his hair

it reminds him of the old 

stomping grounds 

of abandonment 

Lucifer is my friend 

but he won’t sit down at our table

he is deciding the arc

of a new asteroid 

while looking at Facebook

under his hand

the white paper cup is

smoldering.