"Clasp of death"

                            By   Mariam Abada

An evil creature in the twilight looping,

Flapped blindly in his face.  Beating it off,

He screeched in terror, and straightway something clambered heavily from an oak,

and dropped bent double,

To shamble at him zigzag, squat and bestial.

Headlong he charges down the wood and falls.

With roaring brain–agony–the snap spark–

and blots of green and purple in his eyes.

Then with slow fingers groping on his neck,

I hear the strangling clasp of death.