At the Bazaar

There breaks in the bazaar of Zanzibar,
 red surge of life on life;
At eve there came through the sunset's flame
 a man with a dripping knife.
"Eunuchs a score and seven more
 I've made today," said he,
"The blood and tears of all my years
 I've caused would fill a sea.
"Search far, search far from Zanzibar
 for youths of many lands
"For my hungry steel and the glee I feel
 when they writhe beneath my hand
He laid him down where the stains lay brown
 on the floor of the gelding room,
And his gory blade as it down was laid
 clanged like a tone of doom.
In sleep he leered and clawed his beard
 with fingers black with gore;
The ghosts of dead men came from Hell
 and staked him to the floor.
Category:REH
Category:Poetry