I lay awake, open eyed darkness clouding my sight.
This torturous consciousness, my ever-sickening blight,
Nyx, I yearn for your caress, your blanket soft and deep,
Yet savage-winged, Hypnos, deceiver, forsakes me still; for I cannot sleep.
I rage, I writhe, I curse your soul; Oh foul bringer of dreams.
Does your sickness fester such that you would rob me of my rest?
I fear the sight of dawn creeping through the seams,
And yet you mock me, always in jest.
Must I plead for the ghostly wraiths, unseen and full of dread?
A sleep of horror, a darkened haze where waking screams are fed,
Melinoe, I summon you, let your phantoms claim my rest,
For even the torment of the mind is better than this endless quest.
No longer do I dread the dark, I beckon you, outside and within,
Grant me the wrath of your shadow, your tar of terror,
In your cruel and wicked grasp, I find slight solace, a win,
For you, nightmare, I welcome, if you are to be my sleep’s dark bearer.
And yet, no! I refuse, for now I see the reality that my terrors are my own,
Not phantoms from an outer dark, but shadows… homegrown.
What once I fled, I now invite to sit, stand, and sing beside my bed,
Not foes, these fears of mine, but those which have always been part of me instead.
I now embrace the darkness of the night, no wraith can harm me now,
For their faces have been mine true, beneath my furrowed brow.
The nightmare is no stranger here, but born from deep inside,
I walk with it, my shadow fair, with nothing left to hide.
Thus, a great glow, shines bright against the shadows it reveals,
In the darkened months, a graceful light, a warmth that kindly heals,
Nightmares are made joy, where screams are heard in laughter,
In my weary-eyed smile, sleepy now and thereafter.
I see the haunting ghouls of nightmare, in sweet celebration
The candy-filled bowls, of masked children in recreation
Standing beneath the moon’s soft sheen, I witness a most magical scene,
The darkness and the terror, all sweetly embraced on the night of Halloween.
