The Forest 2 Poem by Bryan Norton

Sometimes, in the dead of night
When all our fast asleep
We are startled awake by a loud and pernicious
Rapping sound, a bang bang banging sound

Like someone, or something
Breaking through our front door
Ready to take us, devour us
Tear us limb from limb

Like some dark and evil force
Something not of this world
Something in the realm of terror
That preys on the innocent

Inducing, almost, a heart attack
In the case of Reggie and I
But not among the children
Who laugh and laugh with delight

And the rapping continues
Until Reggie, armed with a baseball bat
Approaches the front door
Trembling, shaking beyond control

And every second, the rapping grows louder
Penetrating our hearts
Our nervous systems
Paralyzing our will to resist

But we know, in spite of our terror
That the rapping will not stop
Unless we open the door
To face whatever evil lurks... there

At the same time, we hear the children
Laughing, laughing, laughing with glee
As if this were a game, a children's game
Where parents are the pawns

Slowly now, slowly, Reggie turns the front doorknob
With fear and loathing
Almost shrinking, so to speak
from the menace that awaits him

That evil, that unspeakable evil
that waits to destroy us
Will not be pacified
Unless we accept our fate

And so it is that Reggie unlocks the door
And turns the knob
To face the monster that waits on the brink
Of our own terror

That nameless, faceless, insidious beast
That nemesis of no renown
That denizen of darkness
That wrecker of sleep

Who first invades our dreams
And then our screams
Will surely be the death of us all
Unless Reggie finds the courage...

And yet, this is not the first occasion
That was when we thought that maybe
There was an emergency of some sort
That brought the authorities to our door

After all, when you are groggy
You tend to act in ways that are
Reactive, unpredictable, nonsensical
Even dangerous

We also thought, thought that maybe
It was a prank, by the sound
Of the children's laughter
At our expense

But when we did, perhaps foolishly
Open the door
There was nothing there
Nothing at all

Nothing but the blackness of night
Nothing that could have fled
Without being seen
No nothing, but the image of fear itself

Permeating our hearts, our minds
Our senses
And even the distresses
Which a nervous system addresses

What could it be
Why are the children laughing
What is there, but also not there
In the darkness

And will we ever know
Or are we doomed
Doomed by fate
To make this descent

This never ending descent
Into the bottomless pit
Of our own, unforgiving
Unrelenting, unimaginable, madness

Now the doorknob is turning
The children are laughing
Just like before
Like before, except, OMG...