{"id":158,"date":"2025-10-23T23:40:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/?page_id=158"},"modified":"2025-11-07T22:38:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:38:58","slug":"blutlust","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/poetry\/blutlust\/","title":{"rendered":"BLUTLUST"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dee Allen<\/span><\/p>\n

BAVARIA, GERMANY 1872<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This place reeks of madness and decay!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A rambling house<\/span><\/p>\n

A prosperous family<\/span><\/p>\n

Can be cursed<\/span><\/p>\n

Without phantoms<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Generations<\/span><\/p>\n

Down the line<\/span><\/p>\n

Their own affliction<\/span><\/p>\n

Stemmed from numerous demons\u2019 invasion on their minds.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Would they inherit the madness? The evil in my blood?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As children, Elizabeth and Emil<\/span><\/p>\n

Witnessed their mother\u2019s suicide by knife.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baron Friedrich Zorn\u2014too afraid their grasp on sanity will slip.<\/span><\/p>\n

Always together\u2014-then locked up apart.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The demon walks in the forest of night!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The forest<\/span><\/p>\n

Grove of sycamores and ferns past sundown<\/span><\/p>\n

Can be dangerous<\/span><\/p>\n

Without monsters<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Save for one in human form.<\/span><\/p>\n

From an adjacent village, pretty blondes stray\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

And meet with a bare-handed destruction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rose petals covered each maiden\u2019s body like a red funeral shroud.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We carry death! We carry death to the bowels of Hell!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ancient ritual with crude skeleton and crosses,<\/span><\/p>\n

Not a children\u2019s game,<\/span><\/p>\n

From the days before Christianity<\/span><\/p>\n

Can drive death out of a village<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Symbolically.<\/span><\/p>\n

There, golden-haired girls became fewer in number.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether demon or man arisen and slain them<\/span><\/p>\n

Was anyone\u2019s guess.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They say they love us. I could kill them for what they\u2019d done to you.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Zorn mansion<\/span><\/p>\n

Prim, proper prison for prominent siblings:<\/span><\/p>\n

Elizabeth\u2014bled out with razors, drugged, kept weak and bed-bound.<\/span><\/p>\n

Emil\u2014unable to contain his rage, hell-bent on freedom from a luxury<\/span><\/p>\n

cell.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hilda\u2014devoted to effectuating her brother\u2019s wishes:<\/span><\/p>\n

Open, shut and lock doors to the children\u2019s rooms,<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep the siblings apart, guard the hall\u2014do this daily.<\/span><\/p>\n

More key-ring jailor than protective aunt.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cBlood will have blood\u201d, they say.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Zorn family curse<\/span><\/p>\n

Insanity and incest commingled [ toxic blend ]<\/span><\/p>\n

A draconian nightmare<\/span><\/p>\n

Worth escaping from. Or lashing out against.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And the bloodlust the Baron feared most<\/span><\/p>\n

Overflowed from regal veins<\/span><\/p>\n

To mansion rooms, to the forest,<\/span><\/p>\n

To the lake, to carriage trails, to the peasants\u2019 village.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One can<\/span><\/p>\n

Only pray<\/span><\/p>\n

Such red-handed ferocity<\/span><\/p>\n

Never\u2014-reaches\u2014-them.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_______________________<\/span><\/p>\n

W: 9.21.25<\/span><\/p>\n

[ Inspired by the film Demons Of The Mind, directed by Peter Sykes. ]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nDee Allen BAVARIA, GERMANY 1872   This place reeks of madness and decay!   A rambling house A prosperous family…\n<\/div>\n
Continue reading “BLUTLUST”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"parent":322,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-158","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/158\/revisions\/194"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}