HORROR Poem: What Moves Beneath the Beard, by Bill Beard

In land of green and water marshy
throughout a busy, sleepless city
the lights are bright with such neon glass
they paint the streets a color pretty

a humid air so full of laughter
accompanied by raindrop chatter
on this another stormy night
such dark umbrellas soundly batter

bars, guitars, and superstars
throughout the streets, through the fog
keep the people fat and glad
in this damp and muggy bog

but smarter eyes aren’t focused
on pink and green and pretty thing
they watch the shadows between
where dark and horrid ones cling

they know the rumors, the cost
for each three, just two return
then the dark cloaks slink away
back beneath the swampy churn

foam and loam within the gloam
slowly wander in between
catching those with witless mind
drowning them in violent green

then there is no fighting back
body washed with ancient soul
follow them along the path
to be one with growing toll

beneath those languid waters
the unknowable beast winds
and communes with its children
further yet its presence binds

growl and prowl and eldritch howl
the ancient one is sated
through its call and followers
a new world has created

and now the marsh water swells
and now the marsh tides proceed
and now the dark cloaks will hunt
as their old master decreed

now a planet made of waves
scans the cosmos dark and grand
searching for ascendancy
a greater plane to command