The Tower

Loud is the ocean against the shore crashing.
Stygian blackness traverses the night.
Thunder is roaring and lightning is flashing,
Filling those near it to madness with fright.

The top of the cliff is windswept and bouldered.
Only the desperate wander its peak,
Lost in their thoughts with the burdens they’ve shouldered,
Hearing those demons that whisper and shriek.

Down a dark pathway appears a large tower,
Standing within a huge circle of stones.
Fools who gaze on it will shudder and cower,
Feeling a horror that pierces their bones.

Nothing will grow in the bare garden’s soil.
Evil corrupts this whole land like a blight.
Within are serpents that hiss and uncoil,
Eagerly waiting for someone to smite.

There at the base is a massive door gaping,
Covered in symbols and wards drawn in black.
If one passes through it, there is no escaping.
Those who do will never find their way back.

Many have come here, and none have departed.
No one can say for sure what was their fate.
Many a lover has been brokenhearted.
You had better leave, before it’s too late.