"I not afraid" His upper lip trembles,
ears twitch.
The rest of his body
does not like the view inside his head,
A dead headmaster returns as a rat.
Out from his knuckles,
yellowing stiletto teeth stretch, to tap, tap, tap
on a much-scratched mahogany desk,
the sound makes the silence gnaw itself.
Fifty years on, a screech owl wakes up,
screaks once.
"I not afraid" says a scared mouse,
who then reflexively scurries deeper
into his pillow.
The old man’s head
manages a slight uncertain nod,
while his sanity
slips away into a pen-stained inkwell.
One screak is all it took.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.