I saw the werewolf,
While on a long, questioning journey,
Stalking through the
frostbitten woods
The vaulted shoulders
The moonlit teeth
The rough bristle hide
All seized my heart
in an icy grasp
But my mortal terror
shrank from the sight
Of its Eyes
And I knew a fear immortal
The Eyes
Burning so
Glistening portals
To pits of fire
Elsewhere
Their light, unholy and keen.
I wondered
(Screaming in my gut)
How could such fleeting forms
of man and wolf
Bear the eternal, terrible flames
What soul could hold them together
What lives had they claimed
The next day, having reached
A small northern town
The folk were quiet & polite
And all stared a moment too long
I looked deep in their eyes
Searching for some lingering sign
Of a cruelty unfathomable,
A hunger unrelenting
Or a mind, savage and stalking.
In which of these folk
would I find those Eyes.
And I lay in bed that night
Lodged at the town’s stark inn
Recalling with black despair
The Eyes
Burning as two hellish stars
In the empty wilderness
And the growing, unearthly lights
As the pack arrived.
2013-04-09