THE NIGHT STALKER



A creature from some elder lore
Stalks the alleyways by night,
Creeping through boxes and crates
That line the dingy alley, till;
Stretching batwings to take flight.

Beneath the creature passersby
Slowly go about their business,
Homeless, unemployed, elderly
Hoping to survive the winter;
Unaware of rapid nearing death.

The creature swoops down on unwary
Passers walking to their doom,
To grasp a victim in its talons
Then away before the others see;
A grizzly sight cast ‘gainst the moon.

Seeing friends from yesteryear
Though their friends are now long dead,
The homeless go with open arms
To welcome friends from better times;
Till blood will stain the alley red:

For soon as they are in its grasp
It changes back to its true guise,
A nightmare beast from elder days
That snatches images from memories;
To help it steal its victims' lives.

Winging silent through the dark
Hungry for some human feast,
Stalking loners as they go walking
Or couples returning from cinemas;
Unwary of the approaching beast.

A beast that lives for killing humans
Determined to feast upon the forlorn,
Human refuse discarded by society
Which only has time for the wealthy;
Not for losers who have been spawned:

Spawned by those who live around them
Governments and civilians alike,
And so the wastrels stagger on
Living in dank, dirty alleyways;
Until the creature devours them alive.

So the horror goes forever on
The stalker living many thousand years,
He crawls the sewers below the city
Coming up again to feast once more;
As the twilight brings night near.

The old, the homeless, the derelicts
All are the stalker’s hapless prey,
He reaps and rends and tears out throats
He disembowels his chosen victims;
To vanish one more with the dawning day.

THE END
© Copyright 2021 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

About this poem

Horror poem. Dedicated to the memory of Darren McGavin (May 7, 1922 – February 25, 2006)

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Written on May 07, 2010

Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on June 10, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:31 min read
5

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABXXB CXCXX CXDCX EFXXF XXGXX XHXXH DXCCX XXIGX IXCAE XJXXJ XXX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,757
Words 304
Stanzas 11
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 3

Phil Roberts

I turn 65 on the 31st of January 2022. I love cats, rock music, and horror fiction and poetry more…

All Phil Roberts poems | Phil Roberts Books

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