I have seen the dark universe yawning

  Where the black planets roll without aim,

  Where they roll in their horror unheeded,

  Without knowledge, or lustre, or name.

  ―H. P. Lovecraft,

  "Nemesis"

  1

  I know it's out there, lurking in the darkness,

  Hiding in tombs of endless night and silence

  Along dark rivers from forgotten eras;

  Vast are the realms of outer darkness there,

  Enveloping this earthly plane we live on.

  Suppose (should you allow for suppositions)

  Entire domains and kingdoms of existence

  Entering through the misty veil of dreams and

  Nightmares and through the corners of our minds.

  There lies in distant wastes beyond our dreams

  Humongous vistas where great Azathoth,

  Enchanted still to sleep by flutes and drums,

  Dreams on in muttering such gibberish

  As no one (still alive or dead) can fathom,

  Remaining there an Imbecile of All,

  Knowing of nothing that his mind creates.

  Under no circumstance shall I tell all,

  Nor mention all the awful things I saw

  Inside the fringes of those Halls of Dread.

  Verily will I say to you that these

  Enchanted and horrendous things I saw

  Require a strength of mind to comprehend,

  Since neophytes like you have gone insane,

  Endangering their plastic minds as much as

  Yours. So in mercy to yourself and to

  All other listeners who hear you speak these

  Wonders I am to tell, I must reveal

  Nothing that would endanger both of us;

  In no way else will I reveal these wonders,

  Not that these very words fill me with worry:

  Give me some time to figure out this story.

  2

  When I was seventeen, I used to see

  Half-glimpses through the veil of lucid dreams,

  Entering vast and dim-lit hallways through a

  Reclusive door I often chanced to find

  Either by luck or evil circumstance.

  The halls were dark, half-flooded, doorless yet

  Had once connected to a stately palace

  Ere some destruction left it in this state.

  But as I groped along the corridors,

  Losing myself along the wandering bowels,

  A sudden spell of sudden trepidation

  Creeps through my heart with icy fingers from

  Kadath that beckons me along this way.

  Perhaps that pensive place of eldritch lore,

  Long-fabled in hushed tones, attracts and leads

  Astray unfortunates like me to other

  Nebulous realms too wide and strange to grasp.

  Entering yet another unknown part of

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  The winding halls, I find a row of doors

  Standing on either side against the walls.

  Rows upon rows of lighted doors that stretch

  Onwards into the shadows, all of them

  Leaving a subtle chill of doubt within the

  Lake of my heart. So past these ghastly doors I

  Walk on in search of that one door that only

  I can open with the only key I have,

  Tucked away in my pocket as I tread.

  Here then I walk and walk and walk in haste,

  Only to spare the briefest looks behind,

  Unsure if something's there lurking in darkness,

  There beyond the shadow, past the wall of sight.

  Another chill runs up my weary spine, and

  I now run with all the haste of coming doom,

  Making my way along this horrid tomb!

  3

  What chthonic blasphemies pursue my steps *

  Here in these flooded corridors of ruin?

  Each stab pulsating through my weary heart

  Reveals entire denominations of

  Exquisite terrors ravaging my soul.

  There's something in the human soul, a candle

  Haunting the sepulchers that form our bodies.

  Enter a place of darkness, there you'll find

  Yourself the moving target of the ghouls

  Roaming the halls of human fear wherein

  Only those brave or foolish wanderers,

  Led on by some fixation, find themselves.

  Letting these thoughts subside, I recollect

  In my studies on the ancient Occident **

  Nothing of worth, except perhaps the fact

  That in the smaller hours of morning, I

  Have come across these hallways in my studies.

  Even the briefest episodes have left

  In the lake of my heart the slightest of

  Ripples as though some foreign entity

  Has come to wade within the fearful waters.

  Over the slosh of wading legs, a whisper

  Resounds before me far into the darkness,

  Repeating notes in dissonant and eldritch

  Overtures that madden out my senses,

  Repeating like a ghostly gramophone.

  Uncanny are the terrors of the heart;

  Noxious are all the fumes of pungent waters;

  Hideous are the sounds that haunt the blind;

  Erratic are the whims of the looming fate;

  Exquisite are the stabs of sudden panic

  Drowning the heart and mind with fearful things;

  Eerie is this dizzy atmosphere of doom;

  Damned are the souls entrapped inside this tomb!

  4

  Where is the door that leads outside to safety?

  I could not fathom, though I wade and plod

  Through countless gallons of stagnating water;

  How endless seem the rows of doors unopened,

  Opening to horrendous options all!

  Under the spell of this anticipation,

  There comes the sudden stab of awful doubt

  Keeping my wading strides from moving on.

  Neither moving nor retreating, imagine

  Out of the darkness some great bulk of flesh

  Wheezing through breathing holes of mucus-slime,

  Letting out the noxious fumes of wet decay.

  Enveloped in the stench, I wheel about

  Determining to flee the horrid thing.

  Getting a good head start, I flee the scene,

  Exciting that foul-smelling thing awake!

  Onward I run in haste and hear its rasp and

  Roar, almost metallic in intensity.

  Let God expunge the horrors of my flight!

  Under the strain of wading through the water,

  Something foul and sticky wraps its length around

  The middle of my waste and has me

  Ripped apart, my guts spilled on the water where

  Echo my screams, before I woke up screaming.

  Only God knows how I escaped its grasp,

  Reminding me of every stench I smell.

  Now that you know the horrors of my dream,

  Arise and see the bloodstains on my shirt.

  My guts have yet to heal, and yet I live,

  Enslaved in death while I remain alive!

  FINISH