For an hour,
or a few minutes,
I feel at peace
with my own flesh
in this pristine
purity of air.
Because
(1988)
Outside shining windows, snow is falling;
warmth pervades the peaceful quiet rooms
as firelight flickers on the polished hearth —
so why does he pace across the rug, down
the hall, through a door and back again?
Again and again, as the fresh snow falls,
till the failing embers shift to ash
and the room grows cold?
Because the snow brings memories.
because he is haunted by the life
he never wholly lived.
Because he is old.
Haunted House
(1988)
On these worn and splintered floors unremembered dead once walked. Broken tables, shattered
chairs, lie forgotten by the sagging stairs.
The only language spoken here is more than silence, less than speech. Shadows in the dusty
halls deepen as the darkness falls.
The house is empty, yet something seems to stir its mote-filled, mildewed air — something
struggling to be heard without a mouth to form a word.
John Mason Sidd
(1988)
He did the right things at all the right times;
he was always proper and he was always nice.
His deportment was impeccable, his manners were sublime;
his talk was fascinating, flawless, and concise.
There was never a drawing room that found him at a loss;
his compliments were lavish, not once did he offend.
He was never brusk nor even mildly cross;
he was your and my and everybody's friend.
The day they found him hanging from a branch,
half the town was shocked and mystified and mute;
they passed the hours in a sort of solemn trance.
A morgue attendant saw the note pinned inside his suit:
"I wanted everyone to like me, and I think they did,
everyone, that is, except John Mason Sidd."
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction
The Green Parrot
Slime
The Calmander Chest
The Hunt
Canavan's Back Yard
The Horror at Chilton Castle
Mr. Octbur
Long Hollow Swamp
The Business About Fred
The House on Stillcroft Street
Mrs. Clendon's Place
Road to Granville
Jendick’s Swamp
POEMS
The Humming Stair
The Wind of Time
Grandfather's Ghost
One Day of Rain
Ghost-Town Saloon: Winter
The Scythe of Dreams
Recognition of Death
The Chestnut Roasters
The Man I Met
The Serpent Waits
The Last Pagan Mourns for Dark Rosaleen
Ossian
Avery Anameer
Nightmare
Winter Hours
Contagion
Encounter
Imminence of Snow
Because
Haunted House
John Mason Sidd
Collected Stories and Poems Page 19
