The Call of Cthulhu

Some men found
new treasuries of data
received with suspense and astonishment
just before the stars were right
oh they worshipped
so
they
said——

the precise words
spoken in the night
so
they
said——
and then all dreamed
phantasies
standing evoking spirits
atop the mountains of China
—— each so so convinced
that his correspondence was corroboration
of what he imagined

Professors whooo-boy! they dun jived at those
voodoo meetings
yass sairr!
had their heads so full of waterfront rum
yass sairr!
they never questioned
them terrifying vistas
while horrors that none
of them had ever seen
——outsiders——
took advantage of the convocation
to offer blasphemous questions
for correct answerings
yass sairr!
those outsiders they bore out
the queer and the poets
when the pertinent answers
came——

So convinced
some still remained
so fascinated
and in their future years
even the Great
could not induce them to speak
for they feared sinister ears
——only mumbled in vague suggestions

Professor! —
this manuscript
places caution before audacity
the trees were thinner
these stars are wrong
the brooding voodoo —— not proven!

through the winter of the human mind
something moved sensitive among them
seeking hints
of morbid habitation
then in one nauseous rout
succeeded in tracing
the first to be approached

The man on the Newburyport boat
he knew
enough to keep away

so outer powers did not find the key
—— just found a very old man
with a dream he had never spoken
but he remembered
a morbid and long lost statue
whose origin was the sea