A Dark Night

by John Herlihy

Tell us a story, the children begged,

A story about what, their grandpa asked,

A story about a dark night, they squealed,

Darkest night you ever seen, they implored?

A night that is peopled with stories

Takes away the loneliness we all have.

The wind may blow and the rain may fall,

A night peopled with stories will enthrall.

Their grandpa sat back in his rocking chair,

Then he slowly began to stroke his beard.

As if he were deep thinking, then he said:

“Let me see . . . oh yes. Now, I remember.”

“It was the darkest of all the dark nights

Of all the dark nights that I ever remember.

Filled with stories to take away the loneliness.”

The children listened without a peep, wide-eyed

“The rain fallin’ down heavy, light, then heavy,

Soundin’ like a roar at first, then only a whisper.

The wild wind whistled among the tree branches.”

The children listened spellbound to nature’s sounds.

“I was sittin’ at home lonesome, with no company.

When suddenly, I heard this knockin; on my door.

So I got myself up and went over to open the door.

Well, sir, who was it but this passel of rain drops.”

The children didn’t know about a passel, didn’t care.

It was the raindrops that they were focused on.

All bunched together and acting funny, human-like.

They looked at the old man, waiting for answers.

“Each of those raindrops lookin’ straight at me.

All of them lookin’ down at me scared and cold.

One of them in the front began to speak to me,

Speakin’ to me in this really strange, squeaky voice.”

“Mista, it’s so dark and cold outside here, in the dark,

And we are so very far, far away from our home.

Would you please mind tellin’ us which way the ground,

Where to find this second home to settle down into.”

The old man drew on his pipe and settled back in his chair.

“And that, my little raindrops, the darkest night I ever knowed.”

The children laughed and laughed, as only children know how,

Who thought talking raindrops the funniest thing they ever knowed.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Sunday 30 December 2025