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Some One Behind You?
6 June 1943
He glances neither right nor left At He-Who-Walks-Behind His mouth is sealed, his sense bereft He stumbles as though blind For he is summoned by the Eft And he was hard to find.
The Eft have Things to do their work As He-Who-Walks-Behind Android or formless they may lurk Where shadows fog the mind For they thrive best in sluggish murk And tight their tendrils bind.
Implacable and mute as stone Is He-Who-Walks-Behind He is not flesh, He is not bone He is not cruel or kind He walks by night, but not alone Is He-Who-Walks-Behind.
No matter where you hide or pray From He-Who-Walks-Behind Someday He’ll find you, yes, someday He’ll come and stand behind The head you cannot turn away The eyes you cannot rind.
And then your terror, white or fane To He-Who-Walks-Behind Will make no difference, for pain Both horrible and blind Will dip into your cringing brain And clutch your shrieking mind.
The icy touch of the embrace Of He-Who-Walks-Behind Is cold, is colder than the trace Of shadow undefined That wakes you, screaming in the face Of He-Who-Walks-Behind.
And when they see your vacant stare Your white eyes, dead and blind Beyond which mask unfocused there Is crawling blackness twined Take care, then, mortal man, beware Of He-Who-Walks-Behind.
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