Below

Posted on by the_dorian_poe
Artist unknown

What lies beneath the murky surface, is kept hidden

For their, and our protection, as its terrifying myth

Is a warning, for the curious ones near the engulfing swamp

As the dwelling beast, grumbles, in the thick ripples it creates,

Like an enticement, to those prying, around its banks,

Hypnotized, by the sway of the shrubs,  growing off the creature

Pervading the thick moss, entangled with the moist stench,

Bringing the snooping migrant, in closer, to the stirring

In the overturning mire, that begins to slowly swell

And separates, unveiling the monster, to the petrified wanderer,

As it devours him whole, beneath the black nebulous,

A story repeated, to a young and an inquisitive soul,

A little girl, unafraid of the fable, and deeply absorbed

In its lore, that has placed her entire town, into panic,

Angry debates, deciding how vanquish the terror below

Has only created further hysteria, as they place blockades,

Shrouding, the wetlands from ever being traversed,

Until the little girl, succumbed to her heightened intrigue,

She packs her fishing rod and bait, hoping to lure

Out this supposed ferocious and rapacious beast,

She discovers a nestled path, enveloped by outstretched webbing,

Not even her fear of those arachnids, could halt her odyssey,

As she bit down, and charged through the silken blankets,

Feeling the stretch of its cling, as she pushed through,

Swinging her fishing rod, to take some of the brunt

As she kept mowing past the dense vegetation,

Finally, feeling the squish, under her blind steps,

Peeling off the collected entanglement, she found the swamp,

So serene, lavishly blanketed by the green flora,

She was amazed, and excited to ease her bewilderment,

For how can such a place, belong to such a dark tale,

She stepped onto a solid plank, and dropped her baited hook,

As the beast, puzzled, by this sudden appearance,

Cautiously reached out, pinching the worm, as it vanishes

When the girl lifts the rod, checking for any nibbles, nothing,

Plopped back in, as the beast works faster, removing the worm

And ingesting it, the easiest meal it has ever tasted,

As the little girl inspects the bare hook, and drops another feast,

Only this time, the insatiable creature, was caught

As the hook, deeply plunged into its finger,

As the massive beast erupted, out of the dusky water,

Knocking the little girl back, into a swallowing shrub,

Peering out from inside, her eyes fully widened

At the sight, of the monster, from all the stories she heard,

It was much larger than she imagined, yet still, unafraid,

She slowly crept out, and into the streaming light

Carefully disclosing herself, to the panting, angry mosnter,

They both marveled at each other, the beast of legend,

And how the little girl, was blind to the beast’s sonar,

She inched closer, as the beast held his hooked finger,

A throbbing pain, sending sharp shivers throughout,

The little girl cautiously reached out, for the injured finger

Which was snatched back, with an earthquaking roar,

Composed, she climbed the beast and removed the hook,

She jumped back down, her fishing rod in hand, waved farewell,

As the grateful beast, showed her a trail empty of web traps,

They shared one last glimpse, before she vanished,

The girl safely, without webbing, returned home,

She wasn’t eaten, nor torn to shreds by the beast’s razor claws,

Although, there were glimmers of the told fable

In the still moments, when an unexpected fear, crept,

Only to be ignored and shook off, finding a calm gentleness,

For the next day, she ventured back to the tranquil pond

Finding the beast, slightly poking its sight from its domicile,

From then on, they’d spend hours, that led into a soft twilight,

Only to return the next day, growing an unbreakable bond,

Back, in the hollow halls of her den, the light bowed

As her father, watched, her room in the maddening vacancy,

Sirens blaring in his head, anticipating the jarring knock

To inform him, of his only daughters found, mutilated body,

The horror stricken tale, encased his troubled mind,

As the girl’s father, vexed by her constant disappearance,

Followed her trail, and discovered, her glaring disobedience

By the swamp, where he urged, for her distance,

He then saw deeper, at his daughter, resting upon the monster,

His whole body started to pulsate, as he reached for his blade

Nervously, removing it from its sheath, steadying his attack,

The beast felt a surge, shoving the girl to the ground

And finding a charging man, battling out from the shrubs

Heading straight for the beast, with his blade, as his spear,

As the beast pounded the ground, causing the man to stumble

Loosing his blade, lifted, by the nightmarish claws,

The little girl pleaded with the beast, asking to let go of her father,

But the monster was out, and could not be reached

As it sunk a claw, into the man’s thumping chest,

An eerie stillness, washed over the girl, seeing her father drop,

While the perplexed beast, hid in his murky dwelling

That has been corrupted, for the little girl, falling into darkness

Perched by her faded father, finding his blade nestled in the marsh,

Concealing it, as she approached the sullen beast

Who looked to console her, feeling an awakening twinge

Coming from the girl, who suddenly plunged her father’s blade

Deep, into the sunken chest, putting the legend to sleep

As the stunned beast, bogged down, into it’s swampy grave.

A Monster’s Sanity

Posted on by the_dorian_poe
~The Low Rising~

Blistering cold it was, the day it all began,

The clumped society wrapped in mounds

Of fleece, gloves, scarves -and themselves,

Some, more than others, who stomp through

Avoiding the excrement that they, in fact created,

Full circle motivation kind of thing,

But who are those, who ponder in the outer limits,

Not those who roam, with desolation

Consuming their minds, no not them,

For they stick up thier illiterate noses

At the stepping stones that crowd

Their supposed, high privileged feet,

No time to waste, steamrolling through to their perch,

Just to look down upon all those they crushed,

The degraded ones who still struggle,

Rubbing pennies together in their pocket,

Salivating over the idea of a hot, freshly cooked meal,

No bother to the Ivory tower, comfortable

In their bubble, but what if it burst,

What if someone was to slither through,

And remove a vital piece, from that skyscraper,

Would everything crumble, the whole structure

Of the privileged and all they hold so dear,

Who would even be brave enough

For such a task, as to take down the privileged

And show them the underbelly,

Oh but how and who, would lead such a movement

A revolutionary devious one, only to be jailed,

Oh, but how beautiful it would be to see it all, tumble down.

~The High Side~

Her phone has been stunted, and she reveled

In the solace of not having a surge of calls

And messages from missed calls, on top

Of text messages about those messages

After she had missed those calls -it was calm,

For once, she was alone with her own thoughts,

Quickly got bored, along with the song she was humming,

Started to leaf through a stack of paper loan applications

Until, she found one worthy of her weighed out time,

She noticed something in it, an error clothed and shaded,

But there it sat, pasted onto the page, and as she glared

At the ridiculous infraction, there was a rush of fury

Cursing, at her subordinates in her enraged mind,

Those beneath her, should have caught the oversight

As she grabbed her office phone, dialed feverishly

And awaited for the silence, just before sudden connect,

But it took too long, an automated voice recording,

She cut it short and hung up, spun around to her wide window

Overlooking the crown of the city

With the sun, just setting behind the mountainous buildings,

She checked her watch, crawling towards the end of the day

Praying the phone stays silent, as she stared

Repeating, “don’t ring!” over like it was her mantra,

And then, it rang, alarmingly jolting her from her solace,

“Now you call me back.” She said without answering,

“Its too late now, the application is submitted as denied,

And you can’t fix the mistake you made, not me,

Its almost five, I have a life outside of these walls,

If only you picked up when I called you…”

It stopped ringing, silence slithered back,

She smiled and collected herself,

Her jacket, scarf, gloves, and the stack of papers,

Dropped them all off, and headed out to catch her train.

~A Monster’s Fascination~

“There’s nothing better than feeling a heart flicker out.”

I said outloud and to myself,

Audible, so that I can hear the words

And as I sat there, I ingested those words,

Thought about each syllable and pronunciation,

Analyzed every pitch in that phrase,

All the while, it was provoking me,

The phrase -there was something about it

That drove me insane the more I thought about it,

I’ve experienced those words, ear to their chest

As the drum, after a loud rapid percussion

Stats to slowly weaken, bit by bit,

Yet, saying these words at a time of lull

Does something else, a feeling

That stirs in my gut, and echoes throughout,

Absent, from the world outside my infatuation,

Even the ringing phone, blaring,

Is muffled, inside my crowded clouded shell,

The urge grows and grows, bursting

Cracking the fragile shelled cave,

Sending me out from my solitude

And into materialality,

Walking, amongst the sea of ignorance,

Until I find her, the one that has no consideration,

Hiding behind her own pedestal, charging past

The mass, those she treats as the dense,

I use my charm, she falls victim to it, surrendering,

Without realizing, she’s in my grasp,

With my ear to her chest, listening

As the drum, grows faint

And I find, a satisfying end, to the quench,

For now, the urge has been hushed,

But it will bloom again, and then, the rest will fall.

The Protected Are We

Posted on by the_dorian_poe

Art by Denis Zhbankov

Deep, in the recesses of a town, hidden from the open eye,

Lurks beasts, protected by the frightened inhabitants,

As if released, from Pandora’s mysterious keep

Now amongst the curious, and the hurried defenses,

But the town shadows the secret that dwells in the forest

Just outside the reach of light, under the canopy

Of lush trees, while it devours anything alien,

But eventually, all hidden truths reveal themselves.

~Unprotected~

A stormy day, blurs the contrast just beyond the last tree,

The hibernating land, lies vacant of its projected gate

From letting wanderers into the forest, but most importantly,

Letting those beasts venture out, into the open gully,

A slight chill rushes in, as a foreigner, eager to capture

Beauty of the forest submerged between mountains,

As so many do, who visit the protected landscape,

Exactly what is being protected, is misunderstood

By so many, as a man breeches through, the town warnings,

Astounded by how perfectly nestled, is the serene lowland,

He immediately removes his camera, taking instant stills

Of it all – the towering trees between the ears of mountains,

And the open plain, running into the wave of mountains,

Clicking the shutter with ferocity, grabbing every image,

Not noticing, the dark, mysterious moving mountains

Inching up to the hairline of the trees, peeking,

Seeing this strange figure, near its protected domain,

The man spins around to the trees, and there

Just beyond the last shadow cast by the forest,

A beast with it’s beastlings, and a man with his camera,

They stand there, trying to make sense of each other,

As he tries to steal a still, but the shutter is jammed,

He keeps fiddling with it, setting off the bright flash,

His breathing, starts to quicken, with his eyes widening

At the sight of the three beasts, nearing closer,

Panic, fully sets in, but before he could plant his next step,

He is already face down, being torn and pummeled,

As the shutter, releases and captures a still of horror,

And that slight chill, picks up, lifts that frightening image

Up out of the valley, and into the already fearful town,

It didn’t take too long, before the picture was discovered,

All the townspeople collected, and rifles fully loaded,

To go and hunt down these beasts that they protected,

The stream of torches following down into the heart

Of the hidden forest, where they all gathered

To find a full nest, three sleeping beasts with full bellies,

All of them, who had protected these helpless creatures,

Circled them, raised and aimed their heavy weapons,

And at the drop of a torch, an eruption of thunder,

To end their protection.

Where I Came From

Posted on by the_dorian_poe

Art by Annie Owens

I thought, that an old drained shed, would never

Break me down, but here before me,

Protruding out from the unkempt valley,

A collection of wood and nails, held loosely together,

Where I, used to bury my head, to hide from the monster,

Part of me, still hides, too afraid to face it as it slumbers,

Drifting past me, as I stare at my reflection in the murk,

Locking sight with me, as she transpires onto the shed

To be face to face with who I’ve lost,

Drowned in the crumbling quake of devastation,

It all starts to flood me, a crushing stampede of memories,

I watch myself being hollowed out, a pumpkin on Halloween

Excavated of all it’s guts, gobbled up by the monster,

His meaty paw, swung to and fro, striking the porcelain

That he kept, in it’s place, on that high, cold shelf,

His breath drifted, and filled the dry shed,

That stench, was still there, trapped in the dead grass

And trees surrounding the forgotten place,

Forgotten, until I returned to find her waiting,

Crying for this moment, to be picked up and carried

To the distance, where she can be reunited, with herself,

Me, in my incompleteness, which I’ve grown accostmed,

Never would have happened, if the monster still took breath,

Yet, I still smell him,

Feel him, on the back of my neck,

He’s engrained, into every twig clinging on to it’s branch,

That day, that I left all this to rot in my mind

Has held up, to haunt me and entrap what I left hanging,

I left my weakness to fend for itself, which crawled

Into the deep darkness, to age into it’s own monster,

For I can never escape the punishment

Of never being able, to rescue myself.

Monstrous Tale

Posted on by the_dorian_poe

A monster among strained souls
Far beyond, the moon’s horizon,
Yet, illuminated is the sinister
Orchestrated by this beast,
Stretching it’s grasp over the land,
Word of this growling shadow
Quickly pervades the glooming ruins,
Stricken, with fear amongst dying light,
Huddled together in muffled breaths
As slow, thunderous steps
Crack the floor above the frightened,
Pulsing through the solemn echoes
Of shaking whimpers, the monster,
Claims its victims, shredding existence
In the embers of a smoldering night,
Far into the bleak stripped town, lies
What all dread, a crushing loss
Haunting the endings hanging by string,
While scraps of a pendulum, decays
Slowly in it’s pit, beckoning for light
To flush out the horror residing
In the deep nightshade of my mind, Taking a sip, from the brimming cup,
Aiding me in my transmogrification
Into what has terrorized, this empty village,
Into what has bled fear, in cold eyes
Resting below my growling thunder.

©DorianPoe 2015

The Bat Shrieks

Posted on by the_dorian_poe

She presses around soaked pain
Within hollow hours of this
A stained distressed moon,
She avoids the piercing glowing stare
From that scornful bat, residing
On the sharp edges of her world,
It shrieks, quaking her heart
As she caves further into herself,
But how long, can she evade it’s glare
That scratches at her dungeon door,
The perpetual filth of it’s torment
Barges in, crushing
The already fleeting light,
Hanging on to a fading ledge
As the bat shrieks, echoing
Off closing walls,
Of the eclipsed cavern,
The bat rips her strength, shaking
Her existence in the eternal dark,
The bat shrieks, forevermore,
Reaching out for her
In the imbalance,
Where she wrestles with the affliction
Never able to rise above,
But how can she, when the shrieks
Throw cold steel
Through her ailing beats
Spilling under the floor boards,
Cursed to be in the shadow of it’s wing,
She holds onto the past, one moment
That has held her,
Intact within the echo
Of the shattering shriek,
She grips the lost clock
Against her abducted soul,
Hiding, within the silent thump,
Yet she plummets into the red waters
That perches above her,
Latched, in the hold of it’s scowl
Hypnotized by its crowding villainy,
She has spiraled into the bat’s crimson
Not knowing the way out,
Frantically chasing after its shriek,
Being sucked into the vortex,
Forgetting the moment behind her
Only seeing, the monster
That hunts her.

Rest in peace

Posted on by the_dorian_poe

image

How do you deal with your monster?
Do you cling to the Jekyll moment
Praying for the hulk of your emotion
To subside in the tepid sun,
The monster, drags it’s fingernails
Along your fragile glass, scraping
A design of madness
To the answer rattling, in your hand,
A potion syntaxed in the nothingness
Of insomnia, the dying light
Lost of rage,
Rest in peace.

The Nurtured Monster

Posted on by the_dorian_poe

Stab upon the weak,
Motionless in dirt
As their blood slithers
Around the anthill,
Following the path of the killer
Staining the trail of breadcrumbs,
Charming the blood snake
Into the grave,
He smiles at the grizzly sight
Finding his lullaby,
He has satisfied his lust for death
Between meals of the glutton,
As the parasites eat away
At the fragment of sanity,
Making his craving insatiable,
It claws at his chest
Ripping him from the inside
Until,
He feeds the monster living inside him,
Losing chunks of himself
Sacrificing it down to his fevered seed,
Sprouting throughout him,
Taking control
Never letting go of the wheel,
Fully immersed in the lunacy
Of the poison he ingested,
Jekyll, no more,
He lives in the metamorphoses
That he subjected himself to,
Death is his love,
Death is his drug,
Death, is his beginning,
And it needs to be his end,
A sliver of what was
Climbs its way out of shrouded villainy
To stab weak
Inside.

Awoken by Fear

Posted on by the_dorian_poe

He whispers out to her, from nowhere,
Terrified of the shadow
Cast by a stalking reach,
The glow emanating from beyond
It’s stance,
Entrancing her closer,
Trembling, in the warmth of it’s breath
She looks down
Watching, her feet move
Against her own resistance,
She knows she’s at the door
Of it’s stolen domain,
She feels it’s presence crushing her
So much, no sound echoes
When she opens her mouth,
The sleek brush upon her arm
Makes every hair stand at full attention,
She shoves, whips the door closed,
Runs to her bed and finally shrieks!

Her mother sloshes into the room
Sits beside her little girl,
Assures her that there are no monsters, Kisses her on the forehead
And tucks her in.

The closet door creeks open,
As a hand slithers down it’s side,
Stirring the fragile silence
While keeping her, in the gates
Of the monster’s eye.