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Serpent of Storms

 

© Richard H. Fay

 

 

 

Summoned to face nature's untamed rage,

Drawn toward a savage drumbeat roll,

My roars mingle with the drowning din

Of the tempest's malevolent voice

While hunger gnaws an empty belly

Craving thoughts, hopes, dreams, memories.

 

My black coils swirl in the swollen surge

Of a furious stream in full spate.

Rising well above that churning swell,

Hoping to spy sign of mortal prey,

My bulging orbs scan the muddy banks

Searching for nourishing consciousness.

 

Stormy sparks flare in my feral eyes

As I spot a lone wandering wretch,

A soul lost in tempestuous murk.

Eager fangs sink into flesh and bone

As I rip the man's brain from his skull,

Leaving a headless corpse in my wake.

 

Sated by this gruesome feast,

I return to my watery den.

Dimly glimmering pale spectral green

In the lethally raging darkness,

I slide back down into silty muck

As the fell storm begins to subside.

 

(Originally published in The Monsters Next Door , Issue 6, March 2009.)