The Dark Knight

[Pete Ak]

I've done a line by line crit below but overall found this a poem with much potential. Although the criticism may appear fulsome it boils down to one thing - attend to the details and you have an excellent piece, in my opinion.

The monster has claws, fangs, and a rumbling stomach.
An elusive beast, omnipresent under the moonlight.
The opening is a bit fleshy, 'monster' and 'beast' carry v.similar implications so you could have started with "The elusive beast; all claws, fangs and rumbling stomach, is omnipresent etc..."
It’s onto you, you know, when the very tip of its sharp appendages
Run down your spine. Escape, just scram, don’t think,
Until dawn cracks. Don’t let it grab you, pull you down, and
Swallow you whole. Be wary, be conscious, or you’ll be digested
Not knowing when, how, or why.
The city has claws, fangs, and a rumbling stomach.
As much as you've managed to involve me in the poem thus far, I'm still aware the monster/beast is the metaphorical representation of something so if you tell me 'the tip of its sharp appendages run down my spine' it'd help to know the literal equivalents - as it is you're telling Reader to be scared but not what to be scared of other than being grabbed, pulled down or swallowed, the first two of which don't feel scary and the third is dismissable as unreal (where for example, being 'chewed' has a feel that's more real.)
I’m a spawn of the monster, yearning to put it to sleep.
What does it mean to be the monster's spawn? Is this another metaphor alluding to all of us being so? (It doesn't read like that.) If you are unique I'd love and need, to know why and how it came about.
To quiet the dark, buried heart that
Beats noisily every night, and sometimes day as well.
"...day as well" feels like an oversight which you've added to make monster more scary. Afraid it doesn't work for me, you'd have been better off stopping after 'noisily'.
I’m a spawn of the monster, but different from the rest.
OK so you're not unique as a spawn but what about these other spawns? I wonder are they representative of the rest of us or another specific group?
They relish in the beast’s mane, prancing
In neon delirium. They polish its weapons, I
Break them. They love their master,
I loathe it.
good poetic language here (works for me at least.)
Human spirit, innate good; keeping the fight alive.
Would "innate" work better as an adverb? ('innately')
Beneath the vile corruption, beyond the wretched bile,
There must be compassion. Remove the pollution that
Became the accepted state of being. The fiend will die,
Alongside the plague it brought. Then comes the guardian,
Alongside the peace and smiles. And I, shall be lowered
Into the earth with the city’s darkness, waiting for the time to
Rise again, should the foul heart starts beating once more.
Some great poetic language in this section. Are you hinting at your role as Saviour here? The difficulties I have with this are: either you're writing as a deity (or similar superior being) which might have been made clear earlier, (and I suspect is very hard to do convincingly) or you're creating a metaphor I don't understand.