When I was a child
I never slept under the covers
Because I hated feeling confined
By a space I knew wouldn't save me,
Quite like I wanted to believe it could.

But no amount of pillow forts
Or draped polyester sheets
Could keep the boogeyman
From getting into
My head
Or provide me
With a way out when he did

What is the darkness?
What is in the darkness
With one less sense
My eyes can adjust

But my fear
Finds an incline in every lonesome sight
Found in the corner of my open eye.
Or every heartless creak
That doesn't have a home,
Until the daylight
Creeps in to greet my
Wakeful mind.

The rays of light
Aren't any more reassuring
To the monsters under my bed
Than the slivers of darkness
Are to the little girl
Who is afraid
Of an absence of color.

Perhaps that is where my
Love of lightning
Drew a spark.
Amidst the rain
I would stay up for hours to sing to:
A song in the thunder
Written just for me

I find a comfort
In having proof that
Something bigger than myself
is at work
On a lonely night

The dark presence in
darkness
Never sufficed
To make me feel as alone
As I wanted to be

But a storm
Was always a friend
I welcomed into
My drifting sleep