THE CREEPER



In the darkened alleyways
In the absence of pure light,
A shadowy figure slowly creeps
Upon the cobblestones at night.

Across dark rooftops far above
Across the highest alley wall,
The shadow of a ghastly creature
‘Pon the paving stones doth fall.

A courting couple unawares
Hunted by a loathsome reaper,
Blissful in their ignorance
As from the shadows slinks the creeper.

Sibilant the deadly stalker
Creeps toward the courting twain,
And from the spot where lovers die
Seeps a deadly cupreous stain.

Soon a wandering vagabond
Stumbles ‘pon the blooded pair,
Then a shadow blacks the alley
From the creeper overhead.

In the morning passing children
Finding the mutilated three,
Protected by the burning sunlight
Screaming loud they turn and flee.

So a posse soon is set up
Hunting the area for the “man”,
A man they think the evil killer
The truth too hard to understand.

By nightfall, the posse rests
And so the creeper does awaken,
And after hunting through the night
Another innocent life is taken.

A lethal shadow in the night
Protected by the noxious dark,
The creeper sneaks slowly around
Hunting silent through a park.

Like a shadow full of venom
The creeper kills three vagabonds,
By the time the posse awakens
The deadly creeper more is gone.

Through the day the posse hunts
An evil reaper from foul dreams,
Until the night, in all its terror
Brings again tormented screams.

Through the night the creeper hunts
Thrilled by horror it delivers,
Exalting in the blood it spills
Delighted by the lives it’s riven.

Quick the death toll doth rise
And the creeper now must flee,
Back to the arms of Morpheus
Into the land of silent screams.

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

About this poem

In the darkened alleyways In the absence of pure light, A shadowy figure slowly creeps Upon the cobblestones at night.

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Written on July 27, 2009

Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on June 16, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:28 min read
5

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABXB XCDC XDXD DEXE XXFX GFBF XXDX XGBG BHXH XXXX IJDJ IXXG XFAJ XXX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,670
Words 294
Stanzas 14
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 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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