Encounters with Shadows

by John L. Thompson

The shadows were silent
but the twigs exploded.
We fell silent in the dark,
listening, sweating, cursing.

We were told:
“I have seen the shadows move along the rocks,
under the full moon and it comes this way!”
But we ignored the warnings.

We took flashlights,
poked holes in the dark,
and with handguns drawn,
we searched for the shadows that moved.

I saw the eyes,
crisp green glittering emeralds,
cutting the darkness before they retreated into the shadows.
Fear made us stay in a truck cold, tired and hungry.

The morning came and the shadows retreated,
We looked around at a tent fallen in on itself.
We found the cat paw prints in the soft dirt all around.
We never saw the shadows move in the dark.

Century House

by John L Thompson

The house sits forever in the middle of no where.
On overgrown fields and by rolling hills of tangled pinon trees,
surviving from one century to the next.
The wood weathered to gray and it splinters easily.
The roof sags inwards, the earthen floors covered in time.

If one is quiet and listens to the winds,
one can hear the laughter of children playing,
fathers cursing and toiling the earth,
mothers beating old ragged rugs and cooking.
The house gave shelter to families for past generations.

The fields are overrun in ruin.
Youth has passed away to dust,
and the children did not take up the trades of the earth.
The house sits lonely and old,
and now only gives partial shelter to the infrequent passing of strangers.

Flags of the Beast

by John L. Thompson

It started out something like this
In the end we were just walking blood drops.
We allowed ourselves to be lulled and bought into the false dreams.
We allowed ourselves to be controlled.

Its the days that count,
The days have no end and blur into one another
The end had come, the end of days
and we had failed miserably.

The dirt had burned
and turned everything an evil black.
The skies were dark ,
with a hint of burning orange on the horizon.

I walked over to a valley edge.
The valley below was filled with all of humanity.
The Beast gorged itself on the walking blood drops,
dipping its beak to the valley below to pluck the fruit there.

The vengeful wraith flew up in a cloud of dead dust,
scattering the people and I fell back,
and I saw the flags of all nations
lying limp in the dead winds.