Lovecraft

Cool Air

Author's Note: Based on Cool Air, written in 1926. 

You have asked, and now I shall tell you why

A draught of cold air makes me shiver

And ice and snow make me tremble

For it reminds me of a most terrible way to die

It was in 1923 when the event occurred

I was searching for an apartment in New York City

When I found the nicest of the housing of which I'd heard

A four-story mansion on West Fourteenth Street

Within the first week I noticed a strange smell

A trail of ammonia dripping from the ceiling

I took the matter up with the landlady and she explained

An doctor lives above, with machines to keep him well

Aside from the constant thrumming of his machine

I thought nothing of the mysterious man up the stair

Until, one day while writing, my heart stopped

Slowly I made my way up to the room with the cool air

Doctor Muñoz saved my life that day

A pale man, cold and stern like death

He used his collection of odd medications

To restore me and send me on my way

We met and talked afterwards

Of death and life

Health and strife

But not of why his room was always 56 degrees

The doctor came to me in a panic one day

Saying his air conditioning had broken

I must help him keep cool

He said to use whatever way

Of course I complied, and took him to my room

To keep him cold with nothing but ice

The doctor stayed, while I attempted to fix the device

But when I returned, I found black terror

For a crowd had gathered at my apartment

Inside there lay a trail of black slime

Left while I was away for a short time

All that remained was a hasty note

The doctor said to shed no tears

When the bodily tissues become too warm

Those such as his come to harm

For he had been dead the last eighteen years