When Douglas Enoch drowned at sea
Neither was he seen by others nor me
Till’ the moon from full to crescent turned
An’ in the blackest waters he was found an’ returned
My god! He was rancid green an’ barnacle riddled!
Skin like plastic an’ sleeved in black slime
No fish nor gull had pecked or nibbled
At his stygian sunk corpse from where it climbed
He was buried on a plain overlooking the sea
An‘ when the coffin was lowered dogs cried on distant hills
The wind was silent but clouds churned in spite
The cortege gloomed under gathering whippoorwills
As we solemnly planted the seed of our fright
The day after he was laid to rest
I visited the grave an’ fell in dismay
Empty it was an’ darkly abscessed
For its nightmares below it had opened the way
We tried for weeks to seal it once more
With dirt, gravel an’ cement in its stead
It swallowed all an’ grew a bottomless floor
Until the final week of maddening dread
[Monday]
At its mouth the ground was decayed an’ black
With a fibrous growth of veiny thread
From the yawning grave warm air would blow back
An’ heave in rhythmic undulation its breath of dread
[Tuesday]
My mates had told me the grave was cursed
“Stay clear of the place, it’s a godless lot.
It sang in my dreams, hideously versed!”
But its morbid wonder made his words for naught
[Wednesday]
The grave yawned wider than yesterday
An’ a shriek of discordant barking came from below
Its song had called on hounds to prey
But it sang to more than the ears could know…
[Thursday]
“Come down here, save me, relieve me of this hell”
In the voice of my mate it echoed from the grave
The voice, discordant an’ buzzing under the church\'s bell
From an inhuman voice whose song he couldn’t stave
[Friday]
The grave had swallowed tombstones an’ ground
With an eldritch growth of monstrous degree
From the resting place of the man who drowned
It now spewed that which swallowed the sea
[Saturday]
Rotten towers ascending from a terrible maw
The lidless green eye which pierces the ocean mist
“Dream of my name…”, but shocked awake I saw
I stood before the grave, its song I did resist
[Sunday]
I took my leave from that cursed town
I dared not stay there any longer
As I left, the churches bell would quiet down
But in my mind, the song from below has only grown stronger…
21st August, 2024