Creator / imaginer: Dabbler in art, literature and sound.
Stirring from sleep with a jolt,
The heart beating furiously,
The pulse pumping,
A gaze wide and confused,
Covered in cold sweat,
Things unseen move in shadow,
Inner depths cause silent screams,
No way out, there’s no way out,
Lost in dreams of death and black seas,
What secrets do closed eyes see,
More, than woken minds conceive.
And just like that,
I sink back into the black,
It envelops me,
Devoured by dark comfort,
I no longer resist the pull,
There’s no point in struggling,
It numbs all senses,
It keeps open eyes closed,
It mutes all sound,
It guides me down,
Then holds me there,
Until I can no longer breathe,
And just like that,
It releases its chokehold.
The world feels like it’s on fire,
Greed and stupidity pollute the air,
People suffer the reign of megalomaniacal pigs,
Morally corrupt child-adults influence and advise,
Disrespect and violence grow from desperation,
The stink of self-entitlement bites at the nostrils,
All beauty on Earth is violated by materialistic hunger,
Bigotry and self-indulgence are the new faith,
The new age of revulsion has begun,
Self-immolation is technologically delivered,
Mankind’s final act has been scripted and is in play,
A dystopia is birthed, screaming and untethered,
From this point there is no way back.
I stare into the darkness beyond the streetlight,
Something is there, following me, just out of sight,
I tried ignoring it while walking, I increased my pace,
When I stop, it stops, it’s like an unseen shadow,
The waning moon is thin above, the neighbourhood is dark,
I must keep moving, I’m not far from home now,
There it is again, heavy footsteps behind me,
Each foot falls in time with my own,
I breathe a fearful misty vapour in the cold night air,
I feel for my door keys, fumbling in my pocket as I walk,
If I turn my head even slightly, the footsteps stop,
How does it know what I’m thinking,
My front door stands before me, my key slides into the lock,
I look at my reflection in the door glass, I am covered in blood,
The shadow passes, I look at my blood-soaked hands and realise,
I am the monster.
I stand at the edge of a great precipice,
Eyes closed, I can feel a hot breeze on my face,
There is no sound, other than my own breathing,
The drop into darkness feels sheer and jagged,
The plummet, long and painful, and finally fatal,
I can feel the rock edge crumble under my weight,
I am waiting for the final slip,
The hands at my sides are sweaty and white knuckled,
Tense, I’m shaking within, the terror of waiting is intolerable,
The fall has yet to come, it could happen at any moment,
Vomit inducing anticipation, my body is racked with anxiety,
I can leave freely at any time and yet…
I stand here still.
The sound of ocean waves drives out the death-like silence,
Awakening, as the body sinks beneath the surface of the ocean of souls,
Screaming in silence, it is taken by the dark creatures it now belongs to,
A thousand Invisible arms, wrap, constrict and pull at their prey,
The lungs fill, the scream continues, subdued, and eyes sting in salty brine,
The sky is lit by a million stars that sparkle and dance upon the surface,
As the sea floor is reached, a cloud of black sand swirls and cloaks,
Still staring, still screaming silently, the final resting place has been procured.
The final rays of sunlight fall,
Golden and fading as they crawl,
At the water’s edge shadows unfold,
A wrapped body laying prone and cold,
Washed onto cold stones from who knows where,
Dumped with malice and without care,
With cold white skin and glazed blue eyes,
Staring lifeless into the darkening skies,
Silent within the suns dying glow,
Christened Jane today, her surname Doe.
A dreamer’s eyes open, suddenly and wide, accompanied by a gasp for air,
It feels as though the sleeper has been brought to life for the first time,
The confusion passes, and they acclimatise to this new red sunlit world,
Standing high on a dune, the dreamer looks down on a black city lit by red lights,
This world of exploration is dusty and dim, as the dreamer enters the city limits,
It seems lifeless, countless tall glossy black metallic buildings stretch upwards,
Every dark doorway is scarlet lit, there is no sound here other than the wind,
No birds sing, no sounds of human commotion, just an empty silent expanse,
The dreamer stands in the middle of a sand-covered road, paved with dark stone,
The wind whips sand into the sleeper’s eyes, as the sound of a low deep hum rumbles,
From the bowels of the earth, the dreamer feels the vibration through the road,
And as the sun begins to fall, the darkness brings sinister tidings,
From the black alcoves along the street, countless glowing red eyes appear,
The glowing eyes follow the dreamer while they cautiously walk among the black towers,
Again, the deep horn rumbles with a hum, and the sound of 1000 whispering voices begins,
The whispers are almost deafening, it feels as though they are inside the dreamer’s head,
With ears covered, the run begins, a left turn here, a right turn there, and into a side street,
Black metal streetlights line the roadway, all glowing with a vivid red glow,
In the dusty darkness at the end of the street, crooked black creatures with red eyes spill out,
They cut off any escape, they rapidly approach, driving the dreamer back towards the dunes,
The pavement soon becomes deep sand and a steep incline, where feet sink and slip,
The creatures are still in pursuit, the whispering intensifies as the dreamer struggles to move,
Coal black arms burst from the sand clutching the dreamer’s clothing and limbs,
Many unnaturally long arms clasp and pull the dreamer face down onto the dune side,
The sand below the dune begins to give way revealing an enormous gaping mouth,
Tentacle-like arms begin to drag the dreamer into the mouth from where they originate,
In an instant the dreamer is devoured, the mighty jaws snap shut before sinking into the sand,
Silence falls, the city empties, the red sun rises, and on the top of the dune,
A new pair of eyes open, suddenly and wide, accompanied by a new dreamer’s gasp for air
The cycle of the dead city of dreams continues.
In a forest glade, several bodies lay,
Half buried by a killer,
He comes back each week,
To take a peek,
At the trophies he has made.
They lay there dead, in a mushroom bed,
Arranged in his secret place,
Where only killer and forest know,
About his trophy bones,
And the madness in his head.
Thunder rolls through late-night air,
The power is cut, a home is left in darkness,
It simmers in the residual heat of the day,
A weary sleeper tosses and turns,
Lightning flashes through an open window,
Rain pours down, as the wind shakes the trees,
Tonight will not be restful,
Dogs bark madly, they echo in the distance,
As thunder cracks and churns above,
Sweat beads on the forehead, restlessness,
Sudden silence, as the rain and wind cease,
The lightning and thunder disperse instantly,
All dogs are hushed, but the heat remains,
Within the restless sleeper, the nightmares endure.
Dan Verkys 