A Matter of Much Urgency (aka. Why you should always finish your plate)

There was a boy, his name was Bill.

He did what he did and did what he will.

"I am my own man!", he used to say,

"I am my own man, and I have my own way!"

Now the boy, as he ate his lunch,

Stopped his chew in the middle of his munch.

"So much to do!" he would suddenly say,

As he ran off - to laugh and play.

And the meal left alone, cried out in pain,

Not allowed its death, except to rot in the rain.

"Curse you, boy!", it did say,

"Leave me in sorrow and you will pay!"

On the thirteenth solstice, the walls of reality wear thin,

And a thing from the far realm, heard this with a grin.

"Want some help?", it said with whisper soft.

"In bringing these flesh-heaps down from their lofty lofts."

"We will turn their skins inside-out,

Slurp their brains as they run in rout.

We will fry their fat in my dark edifice,

Use their children as seasoning and spice."

"We will devour this world, no less.

All you have to do - is say yes."

And so it did bubble and warp, stretch long and thin.

Grow arms that were darker than sin.

A thousand breaks grew from an orifice,

Screaming, wailing for their sacrifice.

And as it rose it did caw and shriek,

Promises of a world empty and bleak.

And all who heard it went insane,

men leapt off buildings in a bloody rain.

Eyes popped out from tentacled limbs,

Demanding obeisance to its hunger and whims,

Their gaze looked through stone and skin,

Drooling as they saw your terror within.

And the abomination grew fat and old,

As the world grew lonelier and cold,

Until all that was left was Bill and it,

At the bottom of a churning flesh pit.

It handed him a spoon, one from before.

"Now eat me, Billy, eat me more!"

And it laughed as Bill began to feed,

mouth chewing corrupted flesh as it began to bleed.

Yet Bill could not satiate his unwanted greed,

To the voice of sanity he could pay no heed,

Until he realized that the flesh he ate,

Was of his friend and family-late.

And the Dark God laughed as Billy went mad,

Its curving beak slurping as it gobbled the lad,

Its other twelve beaks began to sing,

A song that held an ancient old ring.

And so the Endless One that was Billy's lunch,

gaped right open and ate the world with a hideous crunch.

So listen well, little girls and boys,

Finish your plate before you play with your toys.

Or it may listen to Endless Ones in corners curled,

And your forgotten lunch could end the world.