Proem: The Haunted Street
Marion Zimmer Bradley

Just once I walked that narrow, cluttered street,
penned by damp houses, overhanging low
with shuttered gables and old panes to throw
the blood-red sunset at my hesitant feet.
The houses all were empty, and the slow
pace of my steps resounded, and each blow
echoed my heart, which almost ceased to beat.
The vacant windows leered with empty glee
near cobweb-traced black doors that nearly fell
from screaming hinges; and the clogged old well
that poisonous, leaf-choked, stared back up at me
(as if there was some horror it would tell)
showed me a black and open shaft to Hell!
 -- The Nekromantikon #2, 1950