In a dozy West Virginian town,
An urban legend takes flight,
Holding dominion over a pleasant night sky,
Over highways and young couples,
It’s never in true focus,
A humanoid shape obscured,
Huge crimson lanterns for eyes,
And wings shimmering with prophecy,
Bird or moth or demon?
Nobody shall ever know,
Wings simply flutter,
And bridges fall.
There are those whose eyes are fixed skyward,
Tinfoil uniforms and men of learning both,
Seeing circular conspiracies among distant roman gods,
Metal anomalies in the atmosphere,
Strange lights peeking from behind lady lunar,
They see patterns and smoke in the cosmos,
Little green men dance upon their chests,
Authorities choking them in their sleep,
Are they mad to breathe such perceptions?
Do the stars perceive us in turn?
Whether it is paranoia or prudence,
I cannot decide,
But as the saying goes,
When you peer over long into the void,
It might just be peering back.
After the sunsets warning,
The dark creeps up,
Nothing is radiant in the world,
Naught but the two lights I see,
Corpselights in the black,
Malevolence in twin lustre,
Eyes flittering a grim emerald,
I lock vision with them,
Silence,
Just silence,
The hairs upon my nape stand in awe,
I know not to which fiend they belong,
But I feel the heat of their ire,
Such hate in their illumination,
They pounce from brush to brush,
Denoting a predators process,
The night shifts just that bit colder,
I am fixed in their gaze,
Silence,
Just silence,
Then rapid claws upon broken twigs,
No more sound would be heard,
No more sunsets to be seen.
Are you sure you locked the door?
Did you check it twice?
Cold iron padlocks and all,
There are things in the night,
Macabre forces,
Hairless dogs and wide-eyed freaks,
Teeth and limbs and nails,
Things that make monsters look like babes,
Do you hear it?
It sounded like the attic creaking,
Scraping on the stairwell,
Or perhaps the wardrobe?
Did you glimpse that?
Fingers on the windowpane,
Movement in the black,
A shape in the doorway,
An emaciated form,
Starving by any account,
Half-crouching in the corner,
Staring,
Just staring,
Psychological needles scraping your psyche,
Terror takes the wheel,
Overwhelming gravity upon your breath,
Have you closed your eyes?
Do you feel my hot breath?
WorldofHarley 