Rex Penton

Light and Dark

Under the red moon, the knight alone
Walked the windless, blackened hills.
Crunch! Underfoot, he crushed the bones
Littered about, through which, he mills.

Under the red moon, roaring silence
Hung heavy over haunted vales.
The faraway shadow of bleakness,
From igneous stone, gothic cathedrals.

Closer loomed the cursed city;
Home to the foes of fairy and man.
Magnificent design left gritty;
Defiled mirror of Fairyland.

Gargoyles freely roamed the sky,
Something that would make the bravest swoon,
Upon the road, writhing adders lie,
Silent, underneath the blood red moon.

Red moonlight flickered off shiny black stone.
Hungry shadows swallow the corners
As the white knight walks the street alone.
Crossing the mires of fresh-cut gore.

Past statues of demented angels,
Past monuments to Satanic kings,
Past the growling, leering gargoyles,
The knight ignored the lurking things.

Proud spires crowned with an inverse cross
Fill the skyline. Giant arachnids
Rested on their webs woven across
The steeples in their unholiness.

Behind the knight, hunters followed;
Savage werewolves with slavering jaws.
Yet calmly, the knight continued
To the tallest cathedral of all.

Far away, a wolf stood on a roof
And let loose a long sorrowful howl.
A canine outline against the moon.
Respond, did the werewolves on the prowl.

Before the knight was a bronzed gate,
Adorned with countless human skulls.
The door was alive with hissing snakes
Slithering through slime-wet porous holes.

Under the red moon, the knight’s armour
Shone red, as did his sapphire plume.
He opened the gate with great ardour
And escaped the gaze of the blood moon.

The door slammed with a heavy clash.
Through dusty darkness, the knight could see
The ruler of beasts, darkness and ash:
Nightmareland’s fearsome Vampire Queen.

Excerpt from Under the Red Moon