Howling at full moons
behind empty branches
in full view of empty tombs
of ancestors in full bloom
Slide your elflocks to the side
while I feed eldritch butterflies
the honey wine that made man divine,
lei guardato il gattopardo’s disguise
*
Rapt cranberry wrapping callipygian peaches,
entrancing crenellations, pergola features
I couldn’t leave you, my favorite weakness
When magenta sunsets broke
across your cello silhouette,
you signed your life to me
An abdominal snowman’s state of mind
fixated on an eldritch view of summer.
Hoarfrost made him catch a craving
for something called Jolly-tinseltoes.
Fixated on an eldritch view of summer
even as his brumal eyes flashed gelid,
he melted at the mention of sunshine.
Hoarfrost made him catch a craving,
side effect of being a valetudinary.
Like a Seer he could taste this treat.
For something called Jolly-tinseltoes
chocolate ice cream with a berry twist,
the world was slush in eternal wintertide.
(Critter's of Chaos)
Upon a realm where artificial lights flicker and fade,
Unbeknownst to denizens, an eldritch evil's laid.
Upon a realm where artificial lights flicker and fade,
Alien eggs nest in shadows cast by tower high,
Harboring secrets that soon will multiply.
With shells that splinter and release their putrid freight,
Nightmarish entities emerge, ready for the fray.
Critters of chaos, fueled by hunger's relentless fire,
Seek to consume all in their path, as if possessed by choir.
Our hapless heroes, cornered, faces pale with dread,
Confront a horde of beasties, their intentions clear ahead.
Yet ere the slaughter commence without reprieve,
An figure cloaked emerges, from doorway hidden.
"Away, ye vile spawn," quoth stranger, voice imbued
With ancient power, as device in hand glowed, infused.
And with a blast of energy pure and bright,
The mysterious savior engaged the Critters in flight!
Beasts recoiled and screamed as holy beams struck true,
Shriveling back to eggs, their evil undone knew.
Critter's abandoned few!
Terror Beneath the Bruised Twilight
Beneath the bruised twilight, forsaken graves gape wide,
Splintered crosses leer like phantoms that bide.
Brambles coil and clutch with thorns sharp as dread,
Weeds mutter curses for the restless and dead.
A skeletal steeple claws the plague-stricken sky,
Hollow winds shriek through windows where lost souls still cry.
Rusty gates slam behind, locking shadows within,
Power lines moan warnings of unpardonable sin.
Ghastly shapes swirl, faces twisted with pain,
Grasping cold gravestones, chanting dark refrain.
Silence crushes breath, as if the world mourns its doom,
In this eldritch graveyard, pure terror finds room.
A jaunt into the mouth of feral woods
to grow the most intimate connection.
Eldritch whispers through the trees,
let’s scare the boys with our smile.
To grow the most intimate connection,
fall upon the sword of a diamond mess.
Let’s scare the boys with our smile,
cat-calling and out of control tweaking.
Fall upon the sword of a diamond mess,
crystals just sparkle brighter broken.
Cat-calling and out of control tweaking,
this will be an hour to remember.
Crystals just sparkle brighter broken,
imperfection magnifies the prism.
This will be an hour to remember,
buckle up and get ready to ride.
Imperfection magnifies the prism,
eldritch whispers through the trees.
Buckle up and get ready to ride,
a jaunt into the mouth of feral woods.
betwixt the chaos and happiness
I'm feeling something
In the tranquil nature of wind
In the tranquil sounds of birds
In the tranquil calmness of the pond
I see a reflection of mine
and hope for the eternal peace
to put out the fire
to challenge the eldritch figure
who has destroyed my home
I've been vexed by my haunting dreams
I've been vexed by the actions I take
each step I take feels like dying
each breathe feels like perishing
each thought feels like confined
time to quell this nearer or beyond the horizon
clouds of uncertainty surrounds this question
all I know is a place in my mind
where tranquility takes over my soul
Feets moving along I tread along this foreign domain full of bitterness and legions of many things and many eldritch terrifying but as I walk I tell you of the many things I observed which forever stained in my mind. I begin entering uncharted canyons looking up at the edges of them I see three individuals nailed to a wooden cross with one made of black marble stone the left a starfish the right a human dog a beagle to be precise there was one more on the right and left that horizons curtain revealed as I walked further through the canyon A man with the head of a mountain goat an then the left one was a human cougar. the black cross in the middle was a nude woman whose hair floated as if underwater her very stomach had many faces molded onto her. these crucifixions were done by these humanoid ants. Further, I pursue my expedition I saw catepillars with the face of babies with with african tribesman riding them as they wear masks of cyclops made of muddy clay reaching the end I see an altar with a golden praying mantis wearing the face of the holy mary I knew that this was my end for I now must feed my golden dove mother.
That woman sobbed in the library's IT room.
It was the tenth of October,
though that seemed so irrelevant.
Why did this woman upset me?
She was uncanny, eldritch,
and the whole thing was sad.
I almost had tears in my eyes.
Thin and middle-aged, maybe she was old.
She was grey and wore a grey overcoat.
Yes, I did almost cry at that sight.
Something not working on that machine?
That computer seemed to refuse
to do what she demanded.
A librarian spoke gently to her, tried to help.
Did the tenth of October have a reckoning on her?
She was to my right,
a small distance away, her back to me.
I could not see her face.
I think the woman settled
and I do rather hope she's OK,
though I'd never met her, may never see her again.
I upped and left the room for home.
It was the tenth of October.
It was World Mental Health Day.
(10 Oct 2023)
They insist on it, what is natural can be supernatural. Vice admiral eat from my
garden for I am quite admirable for your beneficient militia that is multi-national against the hexagonal eldritch terrorists if not have had an assist we would be wet behind the ears. Protect us from the unorthodox fears that have us bleeding wine from our ribs cut and skewered by spears. There wailing bewildered angry screams making us bleed tears.
North for the fields of corn grow and many feasts cleaning dirty skin in the white river bath they laugh they cry slaughtered like sheep in blind carnage they die.
East rain of slime beckons my wall of no emotion many flies to feed many yellow gardens to seed. doves with handprints of blood on them singing pitchily with eldritch songs.
West the man hands with laitance my eyes identify the invisible mountains a prominent tornado coming to me in red dust I see Babel and its army of stone statues and cocoons for great bugs men.
South home of the beast and his army of blue-skinned and their metal shell of magic stars. The one-eyed men were enshrouded by false-hearted white shadows and their flaming messiah. The shadows face a gray army only to be contemplated by an army of rainbow.
I. O my children,
All the faithful,
Heed the call,
Hear the sanction...
The ancient eldritch plea
Gathering from the thousand shadowed places,
Plazas, pagodas, pavilions...
Reach out, summon in communal ritual
The quencher of your thirsts
Slayer of want
II. Moving through the smoke of October,
The dry chill of night...
Tending to the bells in the upper atmosphere...
I am Keeper of the Chimes,
Seeker of the Hearts
Of those who yet seek, and know not yet that they seek,
The Breath of Life and the Flame in the Night...
I am here and I am She
Who loves you all and loves you alway,
And lo, I am with you until the end of your age
Rumbling earth offers it's own baseline
Bones of the underworld crackle thunderously
Concussive forces driving Gaia's ecstasy.
The man watches as her eyes crackle menacingly
Mortal flirtations lusting for battle
Stone and Crystal, immense and fragile.
Booming, resonating, radiating, alive,
Conjured rumblings otherworldly
Each threaten alternately
To burst his chest
Or to implode it.
With each pulse, each soul-searing challenge of her gaze,
Every aching breath
Yet he remains, agonizingly still
And there is nought but to wait for her to move first.
It is a reaper's die cast in darkness
Uncalculated gamble of unwitting fortune
So he must wait.
Her almar might yet give a wary soul rest
Hiraeth, and hope.
Or unmercifully rend him hapless.
So lingers his being, languishing in exquisite agony
Hoping desperately, and rumbling as eldritch runes 'neath horrors unknown.
We skate the frozen face of reality
Above the deep dangerous dark
We make our superficial marks
Not too deep
For fear The Dark will mark us
And visit
Tasteless pelt whiffs of mundane air
Against my nostrils numb with dread;
Scarcely fathom I what spectacle fair
Beyond this umbra curtain latent lies.
Tetchy harbingers over dark corners
Lurk under dismal mirage-like cloud;
Tomorrow's dreams in eldritch lines
Occlude wisest presages renowned.
Each day's bleak bulletins present
Chillily menacing brutish shadows,
As jinxed year's tides forward hop
Into ever-spiraling strangling woes.
Suave eccedentesiast lips no longer
Can mask sore past's swelling blight,
Nor plastic laughter as finely conceal
Apprehensive misgiving's inured bite.
Though indelible certainty clear outline
Of stealthily skulking prospect obscure,
And crafty clock dials key inchings hide,
This menaced soul shall still reign pure.
Few tears were shed when news arrived
that Lord Trevelyan had died.
One solitary wreath was laid
as shallow, feigned respects were paid.
Remote and sullen, he'd disdained
each hand of friendship, and remained
throughout his life a bitter soul
with whom no person could condole.
His lavish mansion towered still
above the village, on the hill
where shadows stalked, in pale moonlight,
all signs of life within their sight.
And curious to see inside
the house whose doors had been denied,
the villagers set forth with haste
unconscious of the doom they faced.
As ghostly clouds went scudding by
a vixen screamed its eldritch cry.
Then one by one they reached the hall:
The door slammed fast once and for all.
They stood transfixed as terror reigned
And piercing cries rang unrestrained.
No soul would dare set foot again
on Lord Trevelyan's domain.
23/01/19
'One Night In A Haunted Manor Poetry Contest'
Sponsor: Tania Kitchin
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