Old Shuck

What was the dark dog haunted
The edge of the western world?
I want to suggest it was
A hound in outline only,
Nothing actually to do
With dogs or ravening wolves
At all. It was the shadow

Of the hungry mind hunting
Another soul to infect,
Another brain to digest.
It was the panting poet,
Nightjar, incubus, demon,
The future racing the night
To eat its eyes by daylight.