the gargoyle

 composed quickly one evening, on realising that loneliness is a false emotion, a trick by Evolution to ensure that humans breed...

           The Gargoyle

Deep in the night, the day creatures sleep,

You drift into slumber, your quilt round your head. 

Nightmares are rising, more real than you know

And Our lives unfold while you're safe in your bed.

Sometimes restless, sometimes calm,

The gargoyle accepted her fathomless fate.

The portals closed; completely alone, 

The friendly moon glared through the huge metal gate.

A brimming red eye looked imploringly on

But too nervous to hope, from the past and the pain,

She covered her head with her tail, on the ground

And settled on stone, in her cavern, again.

Some would call sweetly as they travelled by,

She'd approach, quite cautiously, ready for flight,

"We understand. We know what you are."

Then tweak at her scales and laugh into the night.

A time of contentment came with the years,

The moon had been lying, a dead, cold face.

Too scared to believe any more in her myth,

She felt some strange strength in her own dark embrace.

She longed for the peace that would come with the end

As she heaved on her ribs to draw her next breath

To feel no more loneliness, hunger or cold, 

The tranquil release that would come after death.

Just in time, before no return,

She sensed a presence that burned in her being.

Darker than night, a smouldering form

With piercing bight eyes that shone with their seeing

She growled as she cringed in the shadows, but knew.

He turned to leave, but threw her a glance.

The gate turned to dust and the moon shone unhindered,

She welcomed his challenge, to give life a chance.

This time she'd die if she'd made a mistake,

He could be false, like the others, or more -

HE could be mistaken, like her in the past,

But, accepting his hand, she unfurled a claw...

december 1994