The ghoul comes creeping at twilight’s fall — 
On October’s night of parted veil, 
As ghosts rise in torrents to writhe
Across firmament febrile with autumn stars — 

Scraping jackal talons across tombstones — 
Tongue a lolling, lapping pink worm,
In mimic of those sovereigns of cemeteries
Who consume all life in turn — 

Or rather the leavings, or leftovers of life — 
Fangs reflecting moon’s silver sliver,
Slaver of saliva pooling to drool down
In moiling puddles on the graveyard ground — 

Bits of gritty bone stuck in that ungodly grin — 
Fumes of charnel vapor flow forth,
Fecund with rot, to veil the ghoul’s advance
As it draws nigh a toothsome plot — 

Frantic digging with decomposing hands — 
Claws rake furrows in spade-loose soil,
Exposing countours of a pinewood casket
Whose cover is rent asunder in ravenous haste — 

Trembling with pleasure at meal’s promise — 
Corpse ripened with death-bloat,
Yet still hale of sinew & viscera
& so very pale, pallid as marble or maggot — 

One bite, & a groan escapes from gory lips — 
Crunching of carrion nutriment,
Splatter of putrified blood, rotten marrow
Spewing in savory froth of yellow spume — 

Undead gorger, gourmand of sarcophogi — 
Each tooth eaten with candy’s savor,
Belly distending with glut of bowels
As darkling bowers rustle in uneasy chatter — 

Catacomb for larder, robber of undertakers — 
The ghoul drapes itself in a wreath of roses,
Left as token of heartbroken remembrance,
Before retreating to its tenanted crypt to rest — & digest.

[Author’s Note: this poem draws from the Arabic ghul of pre-Islamic mythology, though it incorporates elements of the ghoul popularized by the quasi-erroneous English translation of 1001 Nights, Vathek, Poe, & eventually Lovecraft. The mythology of the ghoul is an ever-evolving archetype that extends from pre-Abrahamic times, & into the future, where it will surely take on new grotesque forms.]

[Scott J. Couturier is a Rhysling-nominated poet and prose writer of the weird, liminal, and darkly fantastic. His work has appeared in numerous venues, including The Audient Void, Spectral Realms, Tales from the Magician’s Skull, Space and Time Magazine, Cosmic Horror Monthly, and Weirdbook; his collection of Weird fiction, The Box, is available from Hybrid Sequence Media, while his collection of autumnal & folk horror verse, I Awaken In October, is available from Jackanapes Press. Currently he works as a copy and content editor for Mission Point Press, living an obscure reverie in the wilds of northern Michigan with his partner/live-in editor and two cats.]