Poem: "Mephitos"

This sonnet was inspired by Robert E Howard’s story “The Black Stone,” in which a foolish visitor to a mid-European country imperiously decides to investigate the horrific rumors about a certain standing stone.  This sarsen is rumored to have been the site of human sacrifices and the unholy worship of evil entities.

Mephitos

Engirded on each side by liches robed

In tattered cerements, you stand alone.

Your soul is penetrated, your eyes probed

By theirs as you reel stumbling from the stone.

The tale of how you came here flees your mind,

As reason’s tatters creep and drool away,

Until appearance only stays behind —

Although the watchers fade before the day

No trace of your volition lies intact:

The others with the sunrise have arrived

But you are no more theirs, in simple fact.

Your mind knows not that it is now deprived.

     You visited the Black Stone, as your right,

          But you trespassed upon Walpurgis Night.

copyright © 2017 by Mark Alfred

See you back here on Tuesday, the 31st, for the wrap-up to this year's Blog-o-Ween!  But in the meantime, head on over to Spock’s Record Round-Up for musical fun during Spooky Spock-Tober!