Devil’s Paintbrush

Devil’s Paintbrush
For J B Priestley’s Eva; Donne; Bunyan and Jake Arnott


Devil’s paintbrush; tinting shades
Of hell, slowly etching anguish,
small brushstroke by small brushstroke.
Fiendishly cut in bloody ink.
Sketching in the victim’s gore.
Employing men to do his will.
Attrition of the drip drip drip;
his tools the people of his ilk,
who excuse their actions mildly.
Remonstrating innocently:
“I only kicked the clod of earth,
I never caused a landslide,
my actions alone didn’t make
her sink in the slough of despond;
others were to blame more than I,
I alone couldn’t cause her to
lose all hope. My deeds nothing
to compare. One drip of the tap;
merely a soupcon of despair,
didn’t wash her life away.”
Devil’s paintbrush; tinted shades
Of hell, dripping, extinguishing,
small brushstroke by small paintbrush.


The right of Helen Pender to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Helen Pender, Devil's Paintbrush, poem, Rutland, Oakham, J B Priestley