The Nameless City

Searching the sands – the nameless city
Whispers my name under the cursed lost moon

Farther I go to claim discovery
Arabi laughs at my eventual fate

As for the sheiks who call this desert
home they refuse and shun its crumbling walls

Many have bade me to retreat its
sinister secrets none are meant to see

Stories of old told of the city
poet Alhazred claimed invaded his dreams

Picked up a pen that fateful morning
Set to papyrus words that all should beware

That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange aeons even death may die
That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange aeons even death may die

Out of the distant ghastly stillness
shapes of the city formed the shadowy ruins

As it was night I fixed my camel
rested till dawn before continuing on

Hearing a deep clangorous bell sound
fiery disc as Memnon hails the Nile

I with my tools of excavation
started exploring as no man before

Never a carving or inscription
that I could find to tell me who walked these halls

Memories played of the mad Arab
hunting my thoughts and deeply steering my fear

That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange eons even death may die
That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange eons even death may die

Eight hours I dug and removed rock turn to the left then I saw there
Dark apertures leading into temples of stone where they worshiped
I lit my torch and I crawled through then I beheld 3 foot ceilings
Not meant for humans to be here primitive altars and pillars

Night now approached but my fevered curiosity overtook fear
Down, down I went past the painted murals of their race and their history
Finally my torch showed a doorway lead to a steep dropping staircase
Starting descent as the ceiling sunk ever lower and lower

Cut in the walls wooden tombs held faintly I saw through their glass case
Creatures as such I had not seen half human abominations
Standing their vigil for all time thousands of eyes directed me
Just then my torch had extinguished now dark, alone with the corpses

I heard a shuffle and a scraping all ‘round my head just as the stairway door slammed
Trapped in the dark and ancient city at first was silence then some voices I heard

Louder they rang until a ghastly cursing and snarling in a language unknown
Waiting for death embracing madness words of Alhazred I’m compelled to repeat

That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange eons even death may die
That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange eons even death may die