The Rusted creaking lies,
whispered through putrid crooked teeth,
from underneath his ragged brim.
Time-worn top-hat sits tilted on his bony head,
yakking jaw, spitting prostulations, intimidations,
while swirling tattoos filled my eyes and propagandized, and hypnotized.
He is here, he is there,
on mossy rock, on broken chair,
floating phantom through foggy air,
to tear into my heart with his dark despair.
His words......his words, I can not trust
they haunt me as the moon.
His chilling breath fowl with death,
my skull becomes my tomb.
And then I hear a distant bell,
it breaks his grip on me.
I run and fall in gentle new snow
and am once again a child.
I close my eyes and drift to our place,
away from his gaze and grumblings,
to our mosaic covered Sacristy.
And you take my hand to bring me back.
You, with your Spring scented breath,
kissing away my hoary dreams.
The bells clang pure as midnight snow,
and I am safe again in your arms.
Harrogate, Tennessee December 2014