Hell or Los Angeles

I saw Satan in a filthy Los Angeles ally,  
And I’d planned to make the day my grand finale.  
Satan’s shadow: a swirling vortex filigree    
Shaped by yellowing street lights’ faint electricity.  
 
He turned and stared into my soul,
Slowly lifted his gnarled finger to control
His spit-wet lips; they did not move:
“Shhh, don’t scream just yet, you’ve
Gotta believe.  I will eat your shrieks
And vomit them back.  For she who seeks
There is only an endless, grey grim.”  
And I glimpsed forbidden death before him
Spread out on the dirty, cold concrete
One who had seen his own defeat.
 
Satan’s companion: a sleek jaguar ready
His eyes steady
Waiting to devour the dead meat in the littered ally.
And in some terrible new vista of shocking reality
I knew my place in this horrid world
To kill or be killed, how absurd.
 
Will I go mad from this deathly revelation?
Or will I simply exist in bleak cessation?
 
Satan smiles
For he’s had his trials
He knows the answer
But it eats at me like cancer.