A Case of Mistaken Identity

Use the depths of your imagination and do your best to terrify the reader. Try to be vague or esoteric. You can be as verbose as you like, the moreso the better. No limitations on writing style, but no song lyrics with repeating stanzas, please. I look forward to some bone-chilling entries...

EDIT: Also, no vulgar language.

"Diabolical Oculus"

They walk behind with stolen tread
A mirror’s shade of pallid dread
No breath to speak, no eye to see
Yet mock the soul in mockery
They stalk the steps where shadows creep
And haunt the corners dark and deep
With hollow eyes and voiceless call
They mimic life, yet not at all

By Babylon's rivers, dark and wide
They steal the visions prophets cried
Like Jeremiah’s weeping scroll
They haunt the pathways of the soul
They carry words like whispers thin
With hints of wrath and hidden sin
Each gesture wrong, each smile askew
As visions false the prophets knew

From desert wastes where shadows wind
And demons roam in hearts confined
With hints of Lilith’s cruel embrace
They wear the names and steal the face
They walk in guise of lost Ezekiel’s sight
With twisted forms of wrong and right
In mirrored glass where shapes are torn
The watchers mock, reborn, reborn.

They feed on thoughts that twist and fray
On things unsaid and tucked away
With every breath you think your own
They draw you close, they make you known
Yet once you turn to meet their gaze
The world around you seems to haze
A looking glass of shattered schemes
A waking trap of fevered dreams

They wear your name, your voice, your face
In desert dark, where shadows chase
Where Belial’s whispers echo low
And kings of dust and terror grow
They mimic loves that long have passed
Trace wounds that prophets cast and cast
With hands like yours but colder still
They carve the shapes you cannot fill

Beneath the skin that shivers tight
They crawl and scratch and steal your light
With claws of Moloch’s ancient spite
They hollow out the coming nigh
Your shadow splits, your breath goes thin
As they pull you, inch by inch, within
A hollow shell that seems to speak
Yet all inside is pale and weak

Isaiah’s woe and Daniel’s fear
They murmur low and draw you near
With broken psalms and curses deep
That turn your prayers into the sleep
And should you meet their empty stare
And see yourself, but you’re not there
The terror of the self undone
The truth that you were not the one

For in the night, where mirrors break
And demons’ songs like thunder quake
They steal the steps you never take
And whisper low within your ear
"I am you, and you are here."  
So fear the hour when shadows bend
When something follows without end
A figure vague, a dreadful mime
That trails you through the halls of time

For insidious shades stalk the mind,
They haunt the lost, they seek, they bind
In realms where prophets saw the fate
Of kings undone and heaven’s gate
And in the end, they will reveal
That you were never truly real
That demons watch with stolen guise
And drag you deep where darkness lies

wide-screen-life-style

Thank you, PalestRider and PAR, for kicking us off. Great entries so far.

Nice competition thought process..it's inspired me to write about it..wish I would have seen the competition sooner to submit but thank you for the great writes as well as the inspiration

I'd like to say thank you to those who submitted, and all four were great poems in their own different ways.

I decided upon ThePalestRider as the winner, as his poem was closest to what I was looking for out of this competition, quite avant-garde I would say. A very interesting read, like an ancient occult text lost to time.

Shilohverse as the runner-up, I really enjoyed yours as well. I adore these short story-telling poems with clear and purposeful rhyme scheme. The use of a dark reflection to convey the horror of seeing someone like yourself, but not quite right, was very well implemented.

PAR, yours was extremely unique I would say, clearly taking a different spin on the subject matter. I could be wrong, but it almost seems like it is speaking of the higher-class people in society. It was a roller-coaster of words that I enjoyed, unfortunately though, I couldn't pick this one because it violated the rule I set about "no vulgar language".

James_A_Knight, I thought quite a bit about selecting yours as at least the runner-up. I simply love the vagueness you so deliberately played upon, while not over-complicating with too many fancy words. I find that poems like these are the ones that strike at the mind the hardest, forcing visuals to be imagined.

Very well done to all, thanks again.

- UV