They Wake Off Innsmouth

Off Devil's Reef it's said there loom
Loathsome beings that escaped the booms
Of depth charges lodged there in the past
By obedient sailors, their questions unasked.
The jumbled rocks, then shifted, have since
Realigned and eerie changes now evince,
Which suggest a mysterious upward surge
From fearsome depths it was sought to purge.
Bubbles of unworldly hue are sighed
At times in that area so evilly blighted,
And glimpses of the nameless things below
Have chilled chance mariners to the marrow.
"Before the moon twice more wanes,"
Say the hags in doom-shrouded lanes,
"THEY will issue forth to claim their due."
Now, will the Innsmouth horrors begin anew?

© 1972 Meade and Penny Frierson.
Email to: Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge.

First Appearance: An H.P.L. Sampler
First Online Appearance: Nightscapes #4

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