Ordinary Demons

The Winter's night was slow to wane

I was face-down in the shallows, floating

Passing through chambers long and calm

Where the bizarre do-se-do's the mundane

And domestic rivers meet fantastic seas

I rode dead-limbed, dart-eyed

Then jolted by sound, I woke - played it again

A single crack as if a stone had flown

In haste and struck the window pane

I sat up fast and grasped my clapping heart

'What was it?' I asked and I gasped

As I grappled the curtains and drew them apart

My gaze hit the garden, dismantled the gloom

Then the crawlers escaped and they riddled my hair

I was hit by a charge, an ethereal boom

A malignance was present, something was THERE

Strange figures on the lawn, rooted like trees

Filling the shadows, loitering, why?

Then one of them pointed, pointed at me

Terror rose up, flowed and conjealed

And nothing changed, not wind or time

This was an inner-room, buried and sealed

Their eyes were like drills and their presence like lead

I felt myself foaming with helplessness, dread

Ordinary demons in ordinary clothes

I don't want to see them, I don't want to know

And all at once I saw that it was my fault

I'd let them milk me, they were nurtured, well-fed

I'd listened too long, given too much

They've grown strong, hung around, stayed in touch

With whispers of 'do', and hollers of 'don't!'

They sing me to sleep, taunt me awake

Bang nails in my soul to hang my mistakes

I pause on this thought and start to drift

My raft is re-launched and off it takes

I see the cracks of dawn and our nearest star lift

I'm misaligned as I wake

But no longer trapped, I'm intact, alright

But sober from the face to face

I had with my demons in the night