Weird Tales/Volume 9/Issue 3/Wolf

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
4179460Weird Tales, Volume 9 Issue 3 — Wolf1927A. Leslie

WOLF

By A. LESLIE

Eyes of flame and a heart of hell,
Voice like the toll of a funeral bell;
Thews of steel, and velvet paws,
Rapier fangs and dagger claws.

A soul? the ravished soul of a man,
Bound by the arts of the devil clan;
Seared and chained by blood and lust,
Its draggled wings trailed in the dust:
A howling thing ’neath prison bars,
Choked in the shadow of the stars;
Wallowing in the crimson feast,
Befouled by the fetid stench of the beast
As out of the awful eyes it glares
While the white-fanged monster rips and tears.

Oh moonlight trail and panting breath!
Oh wolf! wolf! wolf!—Gray shaft of death!