A Night In A Haunted House Poem by Peter Madden

I sit alone in the dark...
the clock ticking behind me upon the wall...
its sound breaking the suffocating silence only just...
like the beating of times relentless heart..
and marking the long hours till i see the dawn...



the dark beyond my candle light seems almost alive...
filled with overactive imagination and unfounded fears....
conjoured monsters of childhood nightmares...
return to bring their vengence for being forgotten...
and in the dark the child inside screams in the night...



i sit alone mastering my fears in the dark...
clutching at reason to dispell the shadows that haunt me...
the dark is just darkness i tell myself in unsure tones...
empty filled with nothing not even the light...
i am alone and i am safe....



was that a creak just beyond the candles light? ...
a sharp noise cutting through the silences deafening roar...
the floors wooden bones moaning aloud in protest...
violated by unseen footsteps in the gloom...
am i really alone...?



i tell my self its just my childish mind...
forming irrational fears within the darks domain...
as i nervously raise my flickering candle light...
like a holy symbol raised to banish the unholy and unclean..
the circle of my light penetrates into that shadowy realm...



the room is empty before my sight...
nothing stirs in the oppressive twilight...
so i raise the pale flame causing shadows to dance...
but still i see i am alone in this darkened place..
my candle flickers once again and i exhale overcoming my fear...



my flame goes out....
the clock is silent...
the darkness takes me within its arms...
the silence overwhelmes my senses....
and in the dark there is a creak.....