The Night Is A Thief Poem by Jeff Siegel

In the soltice of my mind
The sun sets closer on longing and grief.
A fortnight of Sundays,
And still I find,
Your memory still haunts me,
And the night is a thief.

It was in the days of flesh and bone,
When the sun was a friend,
And the moon a relief.
Our convenant of love was sealed with a stone,
And together we'd stay was our only belief.

In our home by the sea,
Above the great angry reef,
When our hearts knew no sorrow,
And the night not a thief.

My love was like no other on earth.
I envied the wind that blew through your hair.
I filled your days with wine and mirth,
And eyed in askance when others gave stare.

The silk that warmed your body at night,
The silver that held your temprate tea,
Would scowl at the sun's first warming light,
And tarnish in anger,
When your lips came close to me.

Yes, all these events were clear to me,
Where the winds would blow insidiously,
And the ocean that crashed in laughter,
Would reverberate its warning soon after.
Of a nocturnal harbinger cloaked in mystique,
Would soon plunder my world and egress like a thief.

The britely lit days followed in waves,
Would eased my mind with their warming might.
But with each nightly brume
Came a thunder of doom
That doubted my conscious
And startled the night.

It was on such a night,
A bulbous moon shone bright,
That malevolent footsteps
Traipsed our bedroom floor.

I awoke from my sleep and listened,
The moon knifed through our room and glistened,
And terror filled my mind
With thoughts I had never thought before.

'Tis only the wind', I thought,
'Or the curtains rasping against
Our bedroom floor'.
Enveloped in darkness, an image I sought
To the sounds of footsteps that were advancing once more.

'A fantasy! ' I stammered
'A phantasm from childhood lore! '
Weakened from fright, I felt I could take no more.
Until a thread of courage had found me,
And in the darkness, I pleaded and swore.

'Madness, oh madness,
Silence my name from beguiling lips!
Vanquish this demon from Gehenna's shore!
Cast no wake with your fleeing ships,
And mar not my flesh or bedroom door! '

The silence was as chillsome as the sweat on my brow.
My body still trembled from thoughts I'd allowed.
And in the darkness with each breath I exhaled,
Appeared a chimera, demonic in form, ominous and scaled.

It's eyes were as red as the sun's dying rays,
It's voice was as graveled as the ebbing of waves.
A chimera that spoke in innuendos and glee,
In a language so foreign to others, yet so lucent to me.

'The burden you feel sleeps there by your side.'
Resounded the theif as he started to chide.
'To rid the weight that submerges your soul,
You must take the life of the heart you once stole.'
'Only then will you feel an imponderous toll,
That will allow you to exhale and you core to be whole.'

I looked at my bride in comely repose,
Then wept in my hands in disbelief.
My mind turned black, black as a murder of crows,
As I entered a realm of anguish and grief.

With the words of the thief still twisting my brain,
I reached for the pillow that rested my head.
Assured I'd slept with the cause of my bane,
I then stiffled the life of the one I had wed.
Then came the surrender of horror and dread
As darkness rejoiced and innocence bled.

And now I sleep in neither comfort or pain,
My mind as fragile as a dry autum leaf,
Fractured by thoughts that play in refrain,
When love was eternal,
And the night not a thief.