Reluctant dust passes my shoulder As I turn in one spot These eyes are glaring Through the checkerboard darkness Wondering what hides Between the shafts of light Placing patches of Summer On the uneven tiles of the room My toes quiver, tapping the rough edge Of a tile removed from its place By the shifting of the earth Where my breath flushes out dust I see billows of dirt flash Through the separate bars of sunlight Only to fade back into the threatening shadows Placing themselves between me and my eternity Of reverent benediction Conserved for those that wonderingly Drop their last crumbs through the ceiling As their feet glide through the day Shaking the pillars of brightness That guard me from whatever gloom Presides in the secret places where the light never shines The light never stays in one spot It moves like it is bored Slowly passing from one end to the other Slow enough for the patient monsters That live in the thick blackness To avoid its aim The nights are the worst When the last square of light Winks out on the far wall Above the brick shaped like Kansas And the stars--only the brightest-- Shimmer out of reach Unwilling to allow me to taste their blue, red, and green I do not move at night When the ghouls swarm into my chamber Breathing silently so I cannot hear them Above the roar of the leaky pipe In some distant land far from my lightless home They dance about me, their forked tongues lashing Their cloven feet prancing With the silent steps of the trained beast I know the kind parson stands Outside the door praying Too afraid to step inside and cast out these demons The dawn will come soon enough The world above waking A cacophony rising with the sun Sending the wicked things that haunt my sleepless nights Scurrying back into the patches of broken evening That keep me from stepping out of this haunted hall I would cry out to the street that rumbles above my head But the evil ones would hear me They would charge through the light Their twisted horns flashing in the sun Their eyes glowing To pounce and tear me limb from limb To carry me into the cold, everlasting night