Night Light
By John Herlihy

Deep in the darkness ,
Far distant from the light,
Shadows of leaves on the wall.
Ghost whisperers people the night.
Ghouls huddled together in closets,
Closed doors still give an impish fright.
Goblins fly in through the window,
Impervious to the darkness of night.
Imagined fiends terrorize little children,
Who tremble under the cover of night.

High up in the vaulted shadows
Lie even richer shades of darkness,
Lending even further a sense of mystery
To an otherwise innocuous sense of night.
When the imagination becomes reckless,
Monsters appear on the shadowy fringe.
The children lie stuttering and speechless,
Their little hearts feeling as if singed.

The night light burns brightly,
Softening the harsh darkness.
The night light preserves the light,
While darkness swallows all in sight.
The night takes on a secretive glow,
Night then offers assurance to bestow.
The half light lends a simple quietude,
To temper the lonely sense of solitude.