Night Noises

A poem I wrote when sleep was hard to procure. 

Night Noises

Awoke from sleep

By some bleak seabird

Gray against black water

Afloat upon the distant ocean

Chirp

Waning moon, 

Forlorn Froth

Something dredged from the depths

Where the water meets the shore

Chirp

Closer, nearer

Atop sanded crests of dunes

A lupine specter 

Howling, barking, whining

Chirp

Closer yet. 

Unknown feet lift and fall

Once on four, now on two

Yet still padded like a paw

Chirp

Crunching leaves

Fences scraped then jumped

The Moon obscured by tree and house

Cats on prowl, raccoons too

Both protest with hiss and growl

Chirp

Then the silence takes its form

Ghosts and ghouls

Werewolves, vampires

Stalkers, killers

All heaped up at the door

Chirp

Dog ears perked, lifted heads

The slightest click

Then the dread 

Chirp

Something on the stairs

A creak

A crack

And nothing more

Chirp