Casey Garfield

Unitalicised text taken from the Sightings section of the Wikipedia article on the Dover Demon 

17-year-old William “Bill” Bartlett claimed that while driving on April 21, 1977, 

There’s no perfect age for your world to change forever, but I’m glad we got 17. I’d have picked that, if we were picking. 

he saw a large-eyed creature “with tendril-like fingers” and glowing eyes 

Your eyes, Bill. If I had to list three things about you, I’d mention them twice. Your fingers once. 

on top of a broken stone wall on Farm Street in Dover, Massachusetts. 

There’s not many places we can go, Bill, but I’d be anywhere if I could see you. 

15-year-old John Baxter reported seeing a similar creature on Miller Hill Road the same evening. I heard my parents talking last night. They said it’s an epidemic. Must be the media’s fault. 

Another 15-year-old, Abby Brabham, claimed to have seen the creature the following night on Springdale Avenue. 

Nothing like that in their day, apparently. As if I didn’t lose an uncle when mom met the friend he lives with. 

The teenagers all drew sketches of the alleged creature. 

I don’t have words for it, Bill, but I can put down the colours you turn my heart. 

Bartlett wrote on his sketch, “I, Bill Bartlett, swear on a stack of Bibles that I saw this creature.” 

Your turns of phrase make my stomach flip. If this takes us to court, I’ll ask to be sworn in on your chest. 

According to the Boston Globe, “the locations of the sightings, plotted on a map, lay in a straight line over 2 miles”. 

If we get out of here, we’re going as the crow flies. Don’t pull over to hold me until I know you won’t have to let go. 

Some suggested that the creature may have been a foal or a moose calf. 

I’m not gonna be your roommate, Bill, and I’m not gonna grow out of it. I’m not confused. 

Police told the Associated Press that creatures reported by the teenagers “were probably nothing more than a school vacation hoax.” 

I’m not scared they’re running us out of town, Bill, I’m scared they do it to convince the next kids this doesn’t happen. That they want it to be this hard forever. I want to be someone’s uncle.


Casey Garfield is a nonbinary poet currently working on being the happiest they’ve ever been. More of their queer cryptid poems lurk online at www.caseygarfield.co.uk and @thepoetnotthecat on instagram.