frederic kusseler

On Cruelty

Shall I be cruel to you, dear?
Shall I be ruthless and austere?
Shall I be blatantly sincere
and tell you that I hurt what I hold dear?

Shall I be gruesomely severe?
Reduce your essence to a tear?
Shall I be everything you fear:
a nine-tailed cat with boots that trample, dear?

My thorny arms will hold you near.
Elicit screams I meet with cheer.
Can I be painfully sincere?
I hunger to be cruel to you, my dear.

Frederic Kusseler

Frederic Kusseler is a Belgian poet you are probably entirely unfamiliar with. This would be due, of course, to the fact that this entry marks his first publication.

Having been introduced to the works of Edgar Alan Poe at the age of twenty, Frederic decided to use the English language exclusively for any literary expression. His long-standing love affair with poetry started when he stumbled across Charles Baudelaire’s ‘Les Fleurs du Mal’ only one year later.