Onward Christian Scanners

Imagine if Cronenberg had written

and directed The Exorcist. In it,

Father Damien Karras is not a psy-

chiatrist but a psychic, capable

of reading thoughts and moving objects

with merely his mind. This superpower, he believes,

is the Power of Christ, and it compels him

to study the art of exorcism under Father Merrin,

who trains him to become a “Scanner” — a psyche-soldier

in the Christian Army, capable

of not only sensing a sinner’s guilt

and truly knowing the nature of their crimes,

but also able to circumvent confession altogether

and directly absolve them, should they genuinely

regret their sin and seek psychic purity.

This, at first, is what exorcism means for Karras.

But then he meets Regan,

body scraped and raped from the inside out,

possessed by the demon Pazuzu,

who reflects and projects his scanning powers

right back at him:

she seems to be able to read his mind as well,

calling to him in the voice of Mother,

shaming him for abandoning her in the nursing home.

He shakes with rage, while Regan cackles quietly,

curled up in puddles on the bed,

knowing his wishes, cajoling him

to beat her to bruises

with his boxer’s fists.

And then her head pivots impossibly backward

on the child’s shoulders, puking green soup

spraying the stream like a garden sprinkler,

sloshing goop right into his face.

He blinks and screams and shudders

and as Regan’s head spins around

it progressively begins to swell with boils

and puff up like a blowfish

stretching open its scars

till it explodes in a burst of green gore

that splashes across the bedroom,

getting into his eyes,

now red demon eyes,

while Regan’s bloody, exposed spinal cord

is all that remains above her shoulders

spinning, still spinning,

like a forgotten whisk

in some sick cotton candy machine

as Damien summons the psychic power

needed to telekinetically

hurl himself toward

the bedroom’s open window.

***

I read this poem at DogCon2, as part of a poetry challenge with Stephanie Wytovich, who also wrote and delivered a Scanners-inspired poem called, I believe, “Head Helmet.”