goblins of oil-slicked forest swamps
banshee, gnomes, huldra, whorgs, the naissance
and mud-smeared trolls of yonder fairy bridges
the poet beckons your ears like canting witches
creep out - creep out - you twisted scowls un-shadow
come slavering to the last battle
creep forth your slithering heads fish-eyed cold
into full flaunt humpback sprouting tangled kobold
legends bedded in bardic olden terrors
tailed night creatures with slimy feathers
occult magic woven in your earthy noir
reveal - reveal - your gorgeous horror
grendel of myrridyn sheath ivories no more
reprove humankind's dark sorcerer snake oil
their arrogance would deny terra mater's lore
and by their willful ignorance plague her to the core
awake - wake you sleepy giants with timbered owls
whose sinewed scarred faces are lined with wizened frowns
and holes of hollow mouths growl strangled frozen howls
you are chopped and burned into charred stump memory
sacrificed to the idol of mortared industry
amass leafy armies to flout this foe of dung
ere choking smog destroyeth thee from under the sun
and this bereft bard must wail earth's destruction done







1.5 10/10
© Brian Peter Hodgkinson    rhyme