Through long nursery nights he stood <br />By my bed unwearying, <br />Loomed gigantic, formless, queer, <br />Purring in my haunted ear <br />That same hideous nightmare thing, <br />Talking, as he lapped my blood, <br />In a voice cruel and flat, <br />Saying for ever, "Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat!..." <br /> <br />That one word was all he said, <br />That one word through all my sleep, <br />In monotonous mock despair. <br />Nonsense may be light as air, <br />But there's Nonsense that can keep <br />Horror bristling round the head, <br />When a voice cruel and flat <br />Says for ever, "Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat!..." <br /> <br />He had faded, he was gone <br />Years ago with Nursery Land, <br />When he leapt on me again <br />From the clank of a night train, <br />Overpowered me foot and head, <br />Lapped my blood, while on and on <br />The old voice cruel and flat <br />Says for ever, "Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat!..." <br /> <br />Morphia drowsed, again I lay <br />In a crater by High Wood: <br />He was there with straddling legs, <br />Staring eyes as big as eggs, <br />Purring as he lapped my blood, <br />His black bulk darkening the day, <br />With a voice cruel and flat, <br />"Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat!..." he said, "Cat! ... Cat!..." <br /> <br />When I'm shot through heart and head, <br />And there's no choice but to die, <br />The last word I'll hear, no doubt, <br />Won't be "Charge!" or "Bomb them out!" <br />Nor the stretcher-bearer's cry, <br />"Let that body be, he's dead!" <br />But a voice cruel and flat <br />Saying for ever, "Cat! ... Cat! ... Cat!"<br /><br />Robert Graves<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-child-s-nightmare/
