Saturday 5 July 2014

The Sandman



My candle had gone out
I was filled with terror
Hairs stuck up from my arms
It was the time of ghosts
Rain poured down outside
There was a knock on the door
My heart beat and blood curdled
I peered through the window
A ragged man’s there in a cape
Warily I opened the door
What an image he presented
Old as time itself
“Are you ready?” He said
I’ve come on a mission”
“I have been good”
I said as I turned my back.
He laughed, “It’s not that simple
It’s time to go up that hill”
He pointed above him
To a dark and misty hill
“You’ve deserved your rest”
I slowly closed my eyes
And murmured
“All right Daddy”
He grasped me firmly
I remembered nothing more

Image from Flickr.com


16 comments:

  1. This and your previous poem are quite a departure from your usual theme. Mere idle exploration of your dark side, I hope.

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  2. Beautiful, comforting and chilling all at once . The way it "would be" I imagine :) Terrific :)

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  3. Yes a real departure...I love the suspense..the atmosphere..the sense of an epic story placed in a tiny bottle of sand..I don't think I want to go up that hill for a while

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    1. Curiously when I first wrote it I thought it was too dark so softened it to childish imagining as the father puts him back to bed and gets him off to sleep.

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  4. A dream…didn't seem threatening at all, but these can be scary, the day robs them of their power, and the telling…have you noticed?

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  5. But the speaker remembers enough to tell us about that strange and disturbing night--and the even more disturbing and ominous hill...

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  6. Oh, Oldegg, you made him/the picture talk! I'd suggest to fight him! ~ Hope, you're okay :)xx

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  7. Dramatic and intriguing, the ending hints of a dreamscape

    Have a nice Sunday

    Much love...

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  8. One can only hope for different pictures to appear - none of those frightful ones. Nicely oldegg!

    Hank

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  9. Good one because I like the Dad showing up instead of demon. Sorta has a feel that teh kid is half asleep too.

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  10. A definite departure...but that hill sounds ominous. I like how you softened it with that final image. It does have a dreamy sense to it. Scary dreams are meant to wake us up...to consciousness and awareness.

    Elizabeth

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  11. Oh, this is so interesting! You've outdone yourself this time! It certainly must have been a dream.

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  12. This piece is of a child probably sleepwalking coming downstairs. For those concerned about the hill. This is just the term used for the stairs when I was a child to get me "back up that wooden hill to bed".

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  13. WOW! Completely caught by surprise at the end. :)

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  14. how interesting ... from the sandman of our childhood who took us off to sleep and who may sometime make us rest permanently. Fine poem!

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