I Met a Drifter Once

I met a drifter once with soulless eyes
Who told a tale of red demented skies
A madness rides when darkness rules the earth
And howling wolfen echoes now are heard

A whitened moon is shining brightly there
Upon the paths of men, of fools that dare
To cross, to enter forests bound to rule
Of Baron Bloody cruel and nightly cool

The men still travel headless down the road
To Baron`s castle dark, their new abode
A silence fills the ears as gurgling dies
A silent static warning - travel wise

I ventured forth the paths of blackened woods
And heard I there the noises barely good
In terror, fear and horrid dreams I stepped
To crawling blackness there and gates erect

The fear was there, astounding gravely fold
The swaying bodies, clouds of grey so bold
In windy gates, in hollow ground and more
Will walk the hanged, the blooded ones in yore

I turn and run as far as legs would take
I run until I reach a crystal lake
And there nearby a village stood aghast
I stumbled forward, homely inn atlast

To catch a breath, to feel relief at heart
Relief that came gave way to thoughts so stark
`Twas then I heard a horse and neighs and screams
Commotion there, a song and creaks and dreams

There stood a rider, crimson bloody death
Ungody terror stealing every breath
The Crimson Baron, headless, stood there proud
And looming over us, the stormy cloud

A rider red atop a horse and dead
The bloodied sword that bit and bit the heads
And dyed the plates, a colour crimson gore
To chop, to chop us all and more and more

A hand that fell atop the singing moon
A hand that brought me low to pits of gloom
Of people hardy stole the god and mocked
The changing seasons, life, the earthly walk

The wight alive in slaughter lost the sight
I climbed a tree in fright in hasty flight
To watch the limbs of bodies broken fly
The men and women, children hanged to die

As slowly moves the timely guiding hand
And ripple skies above, a plane so grand
A murder, slaughter waning down below
A promise, fateful image, bane and woe

And then I turn my eyes to bright of light
To ember stars, to moon aglow in night
To ride atop the mountains, hold a vault
In hands, above the heavens, hold a court

Awake I, ground so damp with dew and tears
A steady breath for painful lonely years
To hear a neigh, a horse to dream, to haunt
A rider bloody waltzing, hear his taunt