Not Another Nightmare
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Horror squeezes my chest like pliers on a straw ...
There - out there in the black,
Something moved ... again ...
Just briefly, a flash of pale in the ink,
But enough so I knew it was real.
I was standing now, near the sliding glass door,
But before - just minutes ago,
I had been laying on the couch in the living room ...
I'd fallen asleep watching the TV,
And I awoke to darkness ... near silence.
I had heard a tapping in my deep dreaming,
Regular, like a dripping faucet,
(In fact, that's what it was in the dream),
And when I came to full consciousness it continued.
My back was to the glass and deck when I awoke,
Face buried in a throw pillow,
So I had stretched and turned my head
To glance over my shoulder at where the sound was coming from,
And though the timer on the TV had turned itself off,
There was still a small amount of orange light
From the lava lamp in the corner,
Just enough so I could see IT ...
A hideous, smiling face with empty, black eyes,
Pressed against the glass, to make it all the more horridly distorted,
Glaring teeth chiseled to points, dripping with red clotted matter,
And at the very top of the glass - the very top!
(Which made it at least seven feet tall!)
Or perhaps it was floating ... but it couldn't be!
I turned back and buried my face in the pillow like a frightened child,
And the tapping stopped ...
Heart thrumming out of my chest like a hammer, head pounding ...
A dream! It must be a dream, I had thought,
So I slowly turned my head again to glance back ...
It was still there!
And this time it slapped two hands against the glass
With a thunderous "whack!" that assured me I was awake,
And I could see they were also wet with crimson,
Streaking the glass panels and splattering ...
And then gone - just like that!
I turned my head back and buried my face again,
Breathing so hard it was all I could hear - like a wash in my ears.
I lay there for what seemed like forever,
Hoping beyond hope that the sun would soon rise,
Or my heart would burst ...
But the dark remained until I could bear it no longer ...
In a surge of adrenaline I got up and went to the glass and slapped it
As if in defiance, desperate for a conclusion ...
I KNEW it was still out there,
Taunting me ... watching ...
I slapped again ... and again!!
I went from door-panel-to-door-panel, whacking on the glass,
Then to the windows to the side, smacking them as well ...
I even yelled, so terrified that I HAD to know!
Where WAS it? What was it doing?!?
And finally, out there in the indigo night, now raining,
I saw the flash of its pale face inside a hood,
Far above the ground and still as death,
My god - It was so tall! But smiling, yet ...
And even now horribly distorted, as if it were still pressed against glass ...
"Come ON!" I yelled ... "Come ON!!!"
And it came ...
* FOURTEENTH PLACE in the "IT" Poetry Contest, John Lawless, Sponsor. *
Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden | Year Posted 2017
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