Come look at me! Oh, look at me!
Why do you turn your gaze away
From what I’ve turned into –
From what you’ve made me turn into?

Come look at me! Oh, look at me!
Behold the image by your foul hands wrought –
A vision once so pure and innocent now
Perverted and condemned to fathomless disgrace.

Come look at me! Oh, look at me!
Drink in the sight of what I’m damned to be,
My tangled hair a lair of hissing, twisting snakes
And reddened eyes the endless pools of bloody tears.

Come look at me! Now, look at me!
Why won’t you man up? Look me in the eyes!
Or are you so afraid that you’ll be petrified
By the reflection of the beast you know therein you’ll find?

Come look at me! Now, look at me!
I am your sin personified,
And I am vengeance given flesh –
A broken angel that’s assumed a demon’s shape!

So look at me! Now, look at me!
And burn my face into your wretched memory
Before you’re locked away at last for good,
In callous stone eternally confined, 
Of sunlight’s warmth forevermore deprived,
And all hope of salvation hence denied.

[Ngo Binh Anh Khoa is a teacher of English in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In his free time, he enjoys reading fiction and writing speculative poems, some of which have appeared in Weirdbook, Star*Line, Spectral Realms, Penumbric, and other venues.]