Fear Poem by Prabhakar Subramaniam

It was a night

One did not want it to be night,

No light was put out

Other rooms were kept out,

As if they hid someone

Waiting to pounce upon one,

The bedroom door remained shut

With wary eyes trained on it, but

Something still stood on the other side

In no hurry at all, willing to bide,

The sacred ash on the forehead

Did little to lessen the dread

Of the dark one

Fond of the one-on-one,

It was puberty time all over again

Bar the broom, pestle and pain.