The Dark

Memories of childhood nights...

 

Shadows grip the eminent night

Blanketing darkness steals the light

What creatures of nocturnal space

Exist in such an ominous place.

 

Where imaginations dare run wild

The snakes and demons of a child

Things of which you dare not speak

A howling wind, a ghostly shriek.

  

You fathom monsters in your midst

Anxiety peaks, your senses whet.

Impaling doom soon claims your thoughts

You must be free despite the cost.

 

Your eyes contract in search of light,

Blind you are within your sight,

And every sound is magnified,

You cannot run, you cannot hide.

 

With clammy hands you reach ahead,

And grope the walls to ease your dread

Before you touch the blessed switch,

And end the darkness of your niche.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SJ Roebling/Copyright/2008  (Shirley Petrandis)

 

 

Reviews

[Arthur Crow]

Quite a good piece of poetic darkness to satisfy the gothic senses. Nice flow and rhyme.

Keep it up!

[Rick Puetter]

Dear SJ Sinister,

This is a very nice summary of the irrational fear that people feel at times and the poem sneaks up on you and builds just like this fear. The nature of this fear is well summarized in

"Where imagination dare run wild
The snakes and demons of a child"

Yes, it's childish, but it's fear nonetheless. And soon

"Impaling doom soon claims your thoughts
You must be free despite the cost."

And how wonderful that all that is needed is to turn on the light switch to calm the fear. This is something basic and deeply ingrained.

Nice work.

Very best regards,

Rick

[KevinS]

Reminds me of the prelude to "Thriller". You ought to send this to Jackson.
Great description-- I can picture everything you wrote.

[LadyLove]

Funny how we scare ourselves in the dark! Ha ha! I love this! Of course I've fallen over imaginary frogs that go bump in the night too! Hmm...maybe I tripped over a prince! Geez..what a waste of a dark room then huh? Oh well! I enjoyed this one. Will be back for more!