Tuesday Poem: Afraid of the Dark

Best not to walk
these woods
in darkness.

The mind projects
its own horrors
on the blank screen
of the night.

A rapist crouches
fingering his garotte
or kitchen knife
promising the fate
worse than death

and monsters with yellow
eyes that burn -
the worm
who flies by night
and sucks your soul

out of your skull
and leaves the husk
to wander
as a mindless zombie.

Watch your back
as the dusk
begins to smudge the trees,
drifting across
the river bank like smoke.


I've always been afraid of the dark, since I was a small child living in a house without electricity and with too much imagination! We took candles to bed and the shapes and images the flickering flames made and the shadowy corners of the rooms were always peopled with terrors. I'm still afraid of the dark, though logically I know I'm safe, particularly in the country where there are only the wild animals in the fields and woods.

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