Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net






Transcriber's Note: This e-text was produced from Weird Tales,
August-September 1936. Extensive research did not uncover any
evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.



Swamp Demons


By C. A. BUTZ




    The lights that wink across the sodden moor
        Like phosphorescent eyes that beckon men
        To risk fell footsteps in the treacherous fen,
    And sink in loathsome muck, without a spoor--
    What ghosts of former days, what dread allure,
        Abides within this subterranean den?
        Or, reaching out, snares victims to its ken,
    With wraith-like fingers, to a peril sure?

    'Tis told that evil things lurk out of sight
        With human bones that fester in the ooze;
        Belike 'tis true, these bones that once were clothed
    In fleshly form now harbor deadly spite
        Against the living, and this swamp still brews
    Within its bubbling depths the curse men loathed
        Before they turned to leprous Things of Night!