Their writing often explores themes of introspection, love, loss, and resilience
The Devil in the Mirror
A Poem by Rayne LaDuex
He stands before a cracked mirror, tracing the lines of his own face as though seeking an answer in the glass. But the glass only reflects the gleam of his fear, the flicker of his guilt.
He has named himself virtuous—anointed his frailty as righteousness—but behind the veneer, his heart drums with the pulse of a beast that knows no virtue.
Man created morality as a shield, a coat of mail to hide the raw wound of his weakness. He baptized his cowardice “strength,” his selfishness “charity,” and perched upon a throne of borrowed holiness.
Yet when sin seeps through his fingers like molten iron, he recoils and cries, “It was the devil.” As if evil were a creature stitched from brimstone, wandering unseen in his house of bones.
He cannot utter that the claws belong to him, that his own lips forged the chains that bind his soul.
He blames the devil because he cannot bear to look at the emptiness behind his own eyes, where the blackened seed of his transgression germinates.
In the dead hours before dawn, he dreams of a ledger in the heavens, each transgression weighed against a scale that cannot be cheated.
But he is blind to the ledger in his own chest, where every betrayal is already inked in flame. He forgets that the devil is only a word—a scapegoat for the terror of owning one’s darkness.
He refuses to be both the sinner and the judge. He refuses to strip away the borrowed robes and stand naked beside his weakness.
So he keeps dancing with shadows, titling his sins “demons,” never once daring to lower his hand to the savage beauty of truth.
And in that perpetual waltz, he fails to hear the devil’s true whisper: that morality, once wrested from weakness, can become its own kind of prison.
Better to embrace the fire within—harden the steel of conscience with honest flesh—than to cower beneath a cloak of lies. Only when he stares unflinchingly into his own reflection will he see that the only devil worth fearing is the one he refuses to acknowledge.
Rayne LaDuex is a passionate writer of poetry and short stories that delve into the raw and often unspoken facets of human experience. Drawing inspiration from the quiet moments of life and the intricate emotions that weave our stories, LaDuex creates work that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. Their writing often explores themes of introspection, love, loss, and resilience.
In addition to writing, LaDuex balances creativity with a career in project management and serves their community as a high school football coach, helping to mentor and inspire the next generation. They find harmony between structure and imagination, weaving these experiences into their art. Silence is their debut collection, a heartfelt offering to those who find solace in words and the spaces between them.
Order Silence here.
