Good night my child
And don’t you fear
Lest you draw
The Augdenleer—
A beast they say that’s drawn to tears
Of children lost in thoughts of fears.

Beware, beware
The Augdenleer.

Rest in silence,
Embrace the night—
Dwell not on thoughts
Of fears and frights
Or things that cause
Your tears to fall
For with your tears,
The beast, you’ll call.

What is this beast I warn you of,
This thing that’s drawn to tears,
A fright you’re told to beware—
The one called “Augdenleer”?

When I was young, I heard the tale,
The one I’m telling you,
Of this thing that stalks the night—
A terror, I swear, is true.

From a child’s bones
The beast was birth’d
On a restless night
‘Neath the earth;
Tormented by cries that broke the peace,
The bones, they rose, to cause them cease.

It searched the night for the child who cried
And came upon the child’s bedside
And peered into its teary eyes
As it forever silenced the child’s cries.

From the child, it took its bones
And made these things its very own
As jaws and claws and spines and spears—
It took its form from the child’s fears.

On a second night, it took its name
From another child whose bones it claim’d
Who disturbed the rest this wretched beast
That came forth, again, to cries surcease,
And searched the mind for this child’s fears
And found the name “the Augdenleer.”

In the morn, the parents wept
For the bones the beast had kept
And their children whose lives were lost—
Their lives their cries did them cost.

And in the dark that quieted night,
Beneath the glow of dim starlight,
The only thing the beast could hear
Was, “Beware, beware the Augdenleer.”

And now it roams ‘neath blackened sky
List’ning for a child’s cry
To carry its bones and steal its dreams
And forever silence the child’s screams;
For when a child cries from unfounded fear
It infuriates the Augdenleer
Which rises up again to take
The bones of children whose cries did wake
The beast, the horror, the terror and fear—
The thing we call “the Augdenleer.”

The beast’s claws tear and pierce,
Its mighty jaws are strong and fierce,
And breath of fire in its chest
To burn the children who cannot rest
Who called the beast in cries of fear—
Beware, beware the Augdenleer.

It cannot stop until they’re gone—
The tears to which the beast is drawn;
And so, my child, I hope it’s clear
You must beware the Augdenleer.

The Augdenleer is the creative property of Andrew T.S. Bedgood and is protected by US Copyright law.  Any use of this creative work without permission is prohibited.

Hang my head in disbelief
Of all I stand to lose –
Lingering thoughts my enemy,
Dangling like a noose.

And should I choose to listen,
They will consume me whole –
And so I shut myself out
So they cannot grab hold.

It’s in this dark that I now dwell –
It’s in this dark, I thrive;
Eschewing thoughts of what I held
That made me feel alive.

I grasp the bitter poison
That’s promised me respite –
To drown out all the stimuli
And welcome in the night.

Behold this desolation
As the bodies pile up,
And feel the life escape your neck
As its juices fill my cup.

“Breathe deep; just dig,”
That’s all you need to think;
Lingering thoughts your idle mind
Will drive you to the brink.

Carelessness has brought you here
You foolish, simple man;
For the warnings you ignored,
Her blood now stains your hands.

Before the night, you saw her smile –
Before the dark, she laughed;
That one last moment of shared joy
Is now her epitaph.

You gutless fool, how could you know
The stories all were true?
Countless yarns and old wives’ tales
Of the beast that feeds on youth.

Breathe deep, just dig –
That’s all you need to do;
Focus on the task at hand
And put this all behind you.

You should have known, you should have seen –
You should have been prepared,
Yet you still wandered in the woods
Where so few souls have dared.

It came so sudden – struck so fierce,
But warning not without;
For you knew it lurked in here
Yet still you clung to doubt.

Her empty gaze affixed on you,
Her mouth agape and dried –
Flushed of color and all life
Hangs the husk your lifeless bride.

Breathe deep, just dig,
That’s all that you have left
As she lay her shallow grave,
Your wife you’re now bereft.