They came too late.

He clasped his blooded neck with shocked round eyes.
Scarlet liquid decanted to the floor.
They came too late to hear his woeful cries.

He tried to flee but running was unwise.
His legs just couldn’t hold him anymore.
He clasped his blooded neck with shocked round eyes.

His vision blurred with horrible surprise.
With shattered hope he looked towards the door.
They came too late to hear his woeful cries.

He prayed to God, but naught was in the skies.
The devil’s hound was thirsty now for more.
He clasped his blooded neck with shocked round eyes.

The hound was licking, drooling for its prize,
It crunched and ripped and growled and snarled and tore.
They came too late to hear his woeful cries.

The growls drowned out the sound of his demise.
They found him bathed in red upon the floor.
He clasped his blooded neck with shocked round eyes.
They came too late to hear his woeful cries.

I really like this poem, is it a man being killed? I like the ambiguity. It also makes me think of the grisly brutality of fox hunting. Welcome to Write Out Loud - it's great to read new poets poetry.
xxx

I like a well executed villanelle. Would love to hear this performed.
The refrains work well throughout.
Only the line 'It crunched and ripped and growled and snarled and tore.' seems a little too long for me. Might be how I hear it in my head.

Good stuff nonetheless.

Well I guess Halloween is approaching or is it the "Horro" poem season what with John Togher's decent into hell and back and now Darren's great poem.

Like John, I'd like to hear this read. The the long line John mentions works fine for me but if I'd written this poem (and I wish I had) I'd look again at "With shattered hope he looked towards the door". I know it's the right number of syllables but it doesn't quite work and I can't exactly say why, is "looked" slightly longer than one syllable? Well maybe not, but every time I read the poem it jars slightly.
Not a big thing and may not be there at all in the spoken version