Uninvited Guests

When I was but a boy of four
I madly dashed across the floor
To the refuge of my squeaking bed
Within the glow the nightlights shed
From a distant corner of my room
Where they tried in vain to beat the gloom
As encroaching shadows seemed to scoff
At such attempts to fend them off
And my fevered mind was filled with dread
At the thoughts which swirled inside my head.

When sunlight shone upon the floor
I would assert myself once more
‘Til night returned and taunted me
With sights I could not clearly see
And sounds I could not clearly hear
Then I confessed my total fear
Of lurking fiends in every place
Threatening always to show their face
If I should step into the hall
Or peek out from the covers at all.

Placed strategically, so I thought
And after a few close calls I taught
Myself to heed the night’s bleak warning
And cross my legs until the morning
Though I was sure that now and then
An occasional one would wander in
And floating several feet away
Stare at me coldly until the day
Would chase him back where he belonged
With his infernal midnight throng.

What made the evenings tempest-tossed
As I grew older, then was lost
And with the passing of each year
They all began to disappear
But in all the time that’s gone by since
I can’t say whether I’m convinced
And sometimes think that I’ll awake
To such a sight I start to shake
As terror makes my steel nerves bend
I’ll hear a whispered, “Hi, old friend.”