It’s OK to need a nightlight

For those of us who fear darkness

There is no need to feel shame

We simply need a light to say yes

~

A blackout robs even perfect vision

Disorients, distorts reality

We feel deeply, everyone and everything

But inside it is murky, so to the light we flee

~

Violent hands have stolen Me

My sense of peace and security

Through a keyhole I peer

Into a luminous world, perceived normalcy

~

When you are silent, to one like me

It lets the monster out from under the bed

From the closet, from under the covers

In through the windows, crazy fantasies of dread

~

When you give the gift of some notion

Musical notes from your far off song

When you sing the chorus after my verse

Somehow the star shows me where I belong

~

Until I can learn the uncrossing spell

Which lights me from my inside

Please give me something, a match, a blaze

To quell this Jekyll and Hyde