July brought a heavy, hot summer night
The roses were fading, the moon was bright
Under its light on silent paws
A ***** looked about and paused
Then turned and slipped back through the yarrow
And the night was all hot and fevered and shadowed
The sycamores sighed and shivered their leaves
Their whispers sang in the summer night's breeze
The fruit trees burgeoned, apples and pears
A bat wove infinity signs in the air
I wasn't dreaming or even asleep
When a cold hand touched me through the sheet
He paused when he realised I was aware
I could feel him watching with intense stare
He talked to me by the glow of the moon
And I left my body there in the room
He took me up and we flew away -
We travelled until the break of day
The moonlight was white and the lawns were dappled
I refuse to say where we went or what happened
Beneath the tracery of the clouds
Amid the calls of long-eared owls
We flew over fields and rivers and hedgerows
As mist rolled down the distant meadows
Jupiter sparkled and close in the sky
Mars and Aldebaran twinkled red eyes
The light was fast growing
The thistle down blowing
His words were full of
Wisdom and knowing
By the time the sky melted its turquoise to blue
I still wasn't certain of who'd summoned who
With words in Latin he gave a soft chortle
And like a shadow slipped back through a portal
He didn't threaten or hurt or hound me
And at least he put me back where he found me.