Ever read Pet Sematary?

I did, and one of the things which I found most compelling about it were these little thought-bubble-like moments when the narrator spoke what he was thinking. These phrases were in italics throughout the book, and they were really, really terrifying. Some time ago (think at least six years), I compiled a list of these phrases and organized them into a “poem”. I think that the poem, out of context, is both less and more creepy than the lines were individually in the book. Reading the below might work a lot better if you’ve read the book, but I’m hoping for comments from everyone. Again, just so I don’t get forty-six comments about copyright infringement, all of these fragments were gathered from Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, and have just been reorganized and placed together by me, with some minor additions and rephrasing in order to make it all fit cohesively. It’s certainly not a perfect poem (re-reading it, I see places where the fragments fit together seamlessly, and places where it is pretty jumpy) but I like it regardless. Also, I think I’m going to start adding a lot more poetry and fragments of poetry, as I’m feeling the itch to write. Happy reading.

 

Oh my god, oh my dear god,

what is that, what is coming through this fog?

You think you are screaming

But that’s just the sound of them crying

 

Don’t ask me how I know, but I do

He called for it, because if he hadn’t called for it by name

They would all have come

You buy it and then you own it

and the soil of a man’s heart is stonier.

You may hear a sound like voices,

but that was not the sound of a voice.

 

That was not St. Elmo’s Fire.

Whatever it was, it was huge

And it has just passed within 60 yards of me.

The Wendigo, dear Christ,

That was the Wendigo.

What was that thing in the wood?

Dear god, save us all.

 

When something like that is in the cast,

do you honestly want to be in the script?

Something is trying to keep me away

I should have gone, I should have run from here

And this voice inside keeps telling me

Screamyourselfawakescreamyourselfawake

But I am not dreaming, I am standing

In a graveyard and it is about to touch me.

 

Don’t let it touch me, don’t let it get close

if it touches me I will die, but worse

If it touches me I will scream

Until I wake the dead, the living dead

And thin voice is saying “I love you Tigger”

Its back but it can be killed again

Sometimes Dead is Better.

 

The old sleep poorly, they keep watch.

I’m going to keep looking until I know

exactly how this is all your fault.

There’s never enough to fill up the hole again

And I wonder if anyone has ever seen this from the air.

I’m not sitting here believing this, am I?

 

He bought her six dresses,

And I brought her cat back from the dead

So who loves her more?

A man grows what he can and tends it.

I was alive, then I was dead, now I’m alive again.

My name is Oz the Gweat and Tewwible.

 

He turned mean, he turned really mean.

Oh, do not ask what it is, let us just go and make our visit.

We will not speak of such things. They are secret.

Oh dear God, his cap is full of blood.

Resurrection, there’s a word

that you should put

Right the fuck out of your mind,

and you know it.