Dear Galway,

It began late one April night when I couldn't sleep. It was the
dark of the moon. My hand felt numb, the pencil went over the
page drawn on its way by I don't know what. It drew circles and
figure eights and mandalas. I cried. I had to drop the pencil.
I was shaking. I went to bed and tried to pray. At last I relaxed.
Then I felt my mouth open. My tongue moved, my breath wasn't my
own. The whisper which forced itself through my teeth said,
Virginia, your eyes shine back to me from my own world. O
God, I thought. My breath came short, my heart opened. O God I
thought, now I have a demon lover.

Yours, faithless to this life,
Virginia

"Dear Stranger Extant in Memory by The Blue Juanita"
from "The Book of Nightmares" by Galway Kinnell
"Devil", artwork by Vincent Marcone