The Ballad of the Mask

In the dark night a ruined man,
Through his regrets sorrowed,
Cried out loud for his love, Jo Anne,
And the mask she'd borrowed.

But with a broomstick’s swoop, a witch
Betrayed this savage fool
And let snickering snakes enrich
Each toxic molecule.

Confounded and drained, in sin’s stain,
Wearing a mask of hate,
The man ambled in howling pain
In through an unseen gate,

Where spewed from many-a-horned head
One red dragon’s embers
And buried the misled dead
Amid devil’s timbers.

Love, hate, or ire, the masks deceive,
Hell’s tricks are all at task;
They hoodwinked a man to believe
The ploy of Jo Anne’s mask.

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I do not care for writing in forms or for occasion poetry, but once in a blue moon, I have to try to shake up my thought processes. Lol!
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