The Dark

 

I’m afraid of the dark

At night when the lights are out

I imagine nasty things

 

An unexpected noise

‘Did you hear that’, I whisper to lost ears

And there are footsteps in the hallway

Or could it be the wind

 

I don’t believe in ghosts

But I fear them all the same

Malevolent and scheming under my bed

Preparing for a good haunting

Pouncing when I’m most vulnerable 

Once I’ve conjured them up

 

And there are creatures too

Concealed in dark imagination

I hear them hiss and snarl

I see their vicious and angry faces

As they squirm through my dreams

 

My saviour in the dark

Is a gap in the curtains

Letting the moonlight splay across my bed

Like a warm blanket

And a silver heart that indents my skin

To remind me of something greater than myself

 

And my breath

Constant, dependable, rational

‘I can do this’ I whisper to myself

In the dark