Oh So Human

Dark shadows on the wall
Creep, creep, creeping, all
The way
'Cross my bedside pedestal.

What fills my thoughts full,
At hours near dawn?
Fear of the red-eyed bull
Now nearer to me drawn.

Clop. Clop. Clop.
Hooves of ash on pavement.
Clop. Clop. Clop.
Nostrils crook'd and bent.

Petrified.
Move?
I try.
Nothing. Nothing.

Take hold!
Chilly shadow's grasp
As a dingy, raspy
Voice calls me. Calls me.

"Dear soul,
What echoes in your murky depths?"
I stare coldly back
At a black bull's face.

"You know my depths and shadows
You've seen me in this place.
Walked me by the hand
And caused me such disgrace."

The red-eyed bull just smiles
Putrid yellow teeth.
Sharing what beguiles
Those lost without beliefs.

And so I woke from wanted slumber,
Dripping from my brow
Gripping the floor I lumber
Ignoring sleep is now my vow.

As my day begins
I look down every street
Startled by my thoughts
Of the bull, at night I meet.

Alleyways and storefronts
Reflections on a window.
Knowing I am what it hunts.
I’m caught! And so I bend low.

But it is nothing like a bull,
Just a dog that stares at me.
What madness that’s in full!
In this quiet town I see.

Red streaks through the sky
As stars are soon to be
Hoisted up on high,
Ethereal debris.

My eyes grow weak and weary,
But still I force more steps.
This foreign place forms eerie
Images coming next.

Steps start drawing closer.
Closer do they draw.
Soon to be on top of me,
I anticipate the maw.

But what is this that wags?
Just a tail? No yellow teeth?
Wakeful, soon to lag
As I surrender to thoughts of sleep.

And in my dreams
A clash!
So it seems
Beyond belief.

Mangy was the mutt,
But unbeknownst to me,
It was more than what I thought.
T'was a grim that I did see.

I had fallen on the ground
Beneath a tree right at the church.
Nostrils flaring quite a sound
Making innards quickly lurch.

But the bull with yellow teeth,
And eyes, red like sky-streaks,
Could not step one hoof closer
For the grim now growls and speaks…

"You may have your way
With souls lost everyday,
But not one step closer here
On this sacred ground, that clear?"

Ferociously a pace
Set by the bull
And so I brace...
But what wonders did unfold…

You won't believe me if I told,
But the grim took a fearless leap
And knocked the bull off into a heap.
But wait…

There's even more that's to behold.
A sudden burst of flame shot up
From beneath the cobbled path
Dragging the bull…

Into the ash.
Finally. I am free
From his endless,
Nightly wrath.