Coal Black, Were Death's Horses Poem by Patti Masterman

Coal black, were death's horses,
Pulling the hulking black cavern of death;
Windows glinted, concealing their contents-
Too frightened, unable to even draw breath.

The carriage stalked me in dread nightly visions;
Dreams of the nightmare I could not escape;
Surrounded all sides by a thick, clutching fog,
While caught up in that surreal landscape.

How could a mere child summon up such a hearse-
So perfect in every last detail it wore;
And chasing me nightly, cross chasms of horror,
Was the torment I silently, frightfully bore.

The serious fear that my heart might give out;
So violently pounding, each time I awoke,
That I taught myself to repeat my own name,
Until with normalcy, that nightmare I'd cloak

Again and again I repeated my formula;
The dream would retreat, to the edges of mind;
Was the only escape to be had, from the nightmare;
No reason for coming to me, I could find.

It still returned, odd occasions, to test me;
But I never forgot my victorious stand,
And I knew that the rest of my life was no worry;
I'd learned how to conquer my own hidden lands.