IRISH POETRY

Here's a thing from a kids book I never wrote. There's this sort of creepy reclusive Willy Wonka figure who's been held captive most of his life by his wicked uncle who has persuaded him of the evil of the outside world. So this is his song:

Fred Farkle’s Fear of the Outside World

Outside is very cold and very dark;
And goblins squat and air-spurred spectres ride;
Killers fill the shadows in the park,
And in street corners, murderers reside.
The wind whips savagely and, cutting wide,
Raises deadly creatures hid from sight,
Who slink and creep and plot and snarl and slide.
The demon dances blackly through the night.

The dogs howl blood and poisonous the bark
Of stunted trees to sick birds, mucus-eyed
From weariness and horror and the stark
Evil of nature bleached and terrified.
The ghastly air blows thin, a deathly bride
Wed fast to Plague too thick to let in light.
And through it all in screeching wrath and pride,
The demon dances blackly through the night.

This is my only refuge, this my ark
To keep me from the wicked blood-dimmed tide
And thick-lunged horror, sick seas where the shark
And strangling snake and slimy spirits glide.
So here I am, and here I must abide,
Where I am safe and things are warm and bright;
For out there, mad, with evil by his side
The demon dances blackly through the night.

Fintan Higgins