X. The Pigeon-Flyers

They took me slumming, where gaunt walls of brick

Bulge outward with a viscous stored-up evil,

And twisted faces, thronging foul and thick,

Wink messages to alien god and devil.

A million fires were blazing in the streets,

And from flat roofs a furtive few would fly

Bedraggled birds into the yawning sky

While hidden drums droned on with measured beats.

I knew those fires were brewing monstrous things,

And that those birds of space had been Outside –

I guessed to what dark planet's crypts they plied,

And what they brought from Thog beneath their wings.

The others laughed – till struck too mute to speak

By what they glimpsed in one bird's evil beak.

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