My eyes are not working.
I cannot see who is lurking
In the darkness
Behind the bushes,
And who is about to leap out
As I begin to shout
And then to run
So as not to be undone
By one unseen
Amongst the green
Borders of the footpath,
My mind sees as a bloodbath
An epic Tarantino,
In a scene I know
May hold my last breath
As the film ends with my death.

I have become petrified
By something I've not spied.
I am running like a mad man,
Hurtling as fast as I can
Away from a shadow
That for all I know
Hides a brutal killer
A modern world Attila
That has me in his sight
And is delighting in my fright,
And when he attacks
Will embed his mighty axe
Inside my head
So that all I see is red
And he will laugh
As my blood spills on the path.

Can nothing save me from my fate?
Can I do nothing now but wait?
Legs are burning now with pain.
Lungs that cannot take the strain.
Knees too weak to take the pace
Twisted lines distort my face.
My God I'm going to die,
Because no matter how hard I try
I am too slow
And there is too far to go
To make the other side,
And there's nowhere here to hide.
I should have gone around.
But now I will be found
Quite dead beside the water.
One more body in the slaughter.

But a streetlight comes in sight
And in its yellow light
I see there is just a cat
Not so menacing as fat.
As it rubs against my shin
I feel I can begin
To breathe the misty air
Escaping from the nightmare.
I make a solemn vow
Despite my safety now
Not to come this way again
And risk my life so, when
In just three hundred feet
There is a well-lit street
Down which to make my way.
On which I should have been today.

To save yourself this fright,
Don't cross the common at night!