Nacarat by Sam Anthony

On a rain-filled night the country road

revealed to them its way

those travelers that clung to hope

they’d live another day.

 

Wary went the travelers

past thickets and clicking pine

willed onward on that barren Earth

by the stubborn human spine.

 

They came upon a twisted house

sprung from a fetid field

and ever more each traveler wished

he’d not seen the pane’s reveals.

 

For there within the window

and above the withered grass

some devil’s agog demon eye

lay pressed against the glass.

 

Where the eye spied from the curtain

the travelers stopped to stare

for never had one seen a gaze

so evil anywhere.

 

Then from their rusted carriage

pulled on by the crooked mare

they watched that curtain ripple shut

in dark and murky air.

 

They carried on upon the road

of cracked, eroding stone

yet every one was fortunate

that he was not alone.