The Stranger

By Clark Call

Ten syllables a line, 20 lines

Is this a dream? Is this reality? 

For I was always a sane man you see

Grounded by my fealty of my rod

Seeing the man behind me was a fright

shrouded in shadow, always leaving sight 

Leaving the moment I turn around, but 

To reality I was bound here, so how?

I continued walking, down the town now

Nothing but my lantern to contain fright 

But when water took out my lantern light 

The man followed me no more! However,

I tried to explain to the lawmen but

They said I belonged in an asylum! 

“What utter nonsense is that?” I beckoned, 

Knowing what I had masked behind myself 

They chained me up and took me back to hell 

One lawman asked what caused him such a fright

He answered, “he’s the one that escaped jail,

The stranger was just the man's dark shadow

In the lantern light”, it was a still night

By Clark Call