Dark Poems
graveyard poetry by John Grey
The underside concept is not simply about darkness. We have humor here, and not just gallows humor! We have fantasy and sci-fi and drama and poetry that is able to hold its darkness at bay, if only for a little while.
But sometimes… well, there is something about the darkness that calls to us. Call it our fallen nature, call it a safe way to experience fear, or call it a way to make the light feel that much brighter. Whichever is the case, enjoy these poems that follow. And make sure, afterwards, they don’t follow you back.
AT POE’S GRAVESITE It was the perfect pilgrimage. No daylight trudge through Baltimore backstreets. This was a late night orgy of terror. I saw the stone through a churchyard’s rusty iron fence, as cold to the touch as coffin lids: E A. Poe, it read, followed by the dripping drool of years more dead than lived. The wind really did howl. And lightning wreaked a frightening electric vengeance on the heavy sky. Thunder shook the presbytery, the webs that crawled across its cold stone face. For a time, rain plunged down like knife thrusts. But then it softened to a drizzle, dripped down my cheeks like blood.
PAYING RESPECTS I’m in the cemetery at twilight, standing by a gravestone, paying my respects. But the ground is uprooting all around and beneath me. One hand pokes through the soil, followed by another. Ten bony fingers press down hard on the surrounding earth and suddenly a head emerges, with eyes frozen and cheeks a pale purple, followed by a gangly body in a tattered suit with two large grime-encrusted un-shod feet, and the creature shakes itself free of loose dirt like a wet puppy then runs off into the surrounding woods toward the distant river, cackling loudly, I’m in the cemetery at twilight, standing by a gravestone. So now who do I pay my respects to? There’s no one here.
Meet the author:
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Leading Edge, Poetry Salzburg Review and Illumen. Latest books, “Leaves On Pages” “Memory Outside The Head” and “Guest Of Myself” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in The Fifth Di, Leading Edge and Illumen. Has won a Rhysling award for genre poetry.
I did experience the underside recently when, for the first time in my life, I went under the surgeon's knife for the first time. Thankfully, all turned out well.
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