Something Wicked Stalks the Light

My first Halloween offering this year

Nighttime walk down a lonely city street

Trailed by the echoing of another’s feet

Electric street lamps sizzling, a flickering

Create fluid shadows dancing, snickering

In the gloom… something wicked stalks the light

prowling in the shadows… just beyond sight.

Just there… right out the corner of your eye

Something formless… something undefined you spy

Creeping closer… closer… yet still unseen

Slithering… shambling… murmuring… obscene

Dark malevolence dwells in the darkness

You hear in the shadows a susurus

An itch prickles between your shoulder blades

Your small courage so very quickly fades

Breath catching… you gasp… “Breathe” you tell yourself

Walking ever faster, you hope for help

The steps behind speed up… keep pace with you

With a loud clomp, stomp, scramble… what to do?

Don’t look deep… don’t peer into the shadows

Or you’ll be lost… forever lost in fear’s throes

A light… gasp… right there… up ahead… just goes out

Shadows in blackening gloom there now sprout

In the dark, shadowed depths, blazing red eyes 

Feeding off the terror in your fear’s rise

A sudden turning taking you away

From that lonely path where those shadows play

by D. Denise Dianaty

Reviews

[realmwriter]

I'd say it's pretty spooky. Ray Bradburyesk. But I do believe only in the title. Makes me of course, think of "Something Wicked This Way Comes" But it is very Poe. My favorite of all Bards even more than the greatest Shakespeare himself.

"A sudden turning taking you away
From that lonely path where those shadows play"

Might I add on from here?

Very well done I must say.

[Paul Pruett]

Wonderful! I do have one very important question to ask. WHY did I read this in the dead of night?!

[MomzillaNC]

LOL! Thanks.

[jennifer little]

great write i liked it keep up the good work

[MomzillaNC]

Thank you.

[therisa]

It worked, Momzilla. I felt my heart start to race, towards the end of the poem.

May I suggest that you change "susurus" to "susurrus", as I looked up, its meaning. Never having seen this word before, you used it, in the right spot, in the poem.

[MomzillaNC]

According to Webster's, it's spelled correctly; I thought it was spelled with two, myself, until I looked it up when my spell-checker kept changing it. "Susurrus" looks right, doesn't it? But, it doesn't sound right: the stresses and the sound created are in the 's' repetition; if you use a double 'r' the stress must shift because those become terminal r's.

[therisa]

Maybe, it's one of those words, which have multiple correct spellings, Momzilla. Either way, as author, you have final say.

[MomzillaNC]

It's probably one of those words spelled differently in British dictionaries -- like honor and honour.

[therisa]

Very possible.

[Pryde Foltz]

A sudden turning taking you away
From that lonely path where those shadows play

Very spooky, indeed. What lurks in the shadows is rarely as terrifying as what lurks in the shadows of our minds.

[MomzillaNC]

Absolutely. Our own minds, and reality are more terrifying than any fiction.

Thanks.

[Benita-Staebell M - Kin..]

Nice work we know how this feels
I am not out late where I live weird and creepy
unexplained things always are happening and only
in October and during Halloween Creepy!



I am working on a Halloween poem
but it is more of a fairytale it is about Cinderella
I am calling it Cinderella Masquerade Ball but it is
taking a while at doing it not a easy write but the Ideas
came when thinking about Cinderella and Halloween
not my favorite time but I love Autumn.


thank you for sharing Nicely penned
and thank you for your kind review and
comments you left on my page.

Blessings. Benita

[MomzillaNC]

Thank you. This was actually my first deliberate attempt. And, my short story was intended to be a Halloween tale, but turned more into a very tragic Cinderalla ghost story.

[MomzillaNC]

Please be sure you send me a read request when you post your Halloween offering.

[Benita-Staebell M - KindredPoet]

I will do that defiantly :)

[The Black Warrior]

It is very spooky poky, great imagery here. This poem fits perfectly to the theme of Halloween, and great choice of words. While reading this poem to it reminded me of the time that i walked home alone in a very dark night...Well written!

[MomzillaNC]

Thank you.

I think most of us have felt that creeping itch between the shoulder blades while walking a deserted city side street.

[The Black Warrior]

That is very true Momzilla

[jacob erin-cilberto]

one of my favorite authors is dean koontz...this sounds like something he would write if he wrote poetry...

thinigs definitely go bump in the night...
nicely done.

[MomzillaNC]

Thank you. I'm honored to be compared to an author the caliber of Koontz.

For more spooky, try my serialized short story, "The Dance Plays On… " There are nine installments and it's a companion piece to my poem, "Shariara's Lament."

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

It's spookalicious! If I may be so bold in using a conjured word, well done, great read.

[MomzillaNC]

Thank you. Coming from someone who lives this kind of poetry, I consider that high praise indeed for my first attempt.

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

Bravo my darling, I do indeed love the "spooky" in all poetry and you have hit a winning strike!

[MomzillaNC]

Thank you.

[An owl on the moon]

Smoothly dark and moving... your words flow in a rhythmic mist of the season. Very well done!

[MomzillaNC]

Thank you. I like that, "a rhythmic mist of the season."