Another night stumbles over the Earth

[Sweets America]

Another night stumbles over the Earth –

Under his fortress of a bed,
a child waits for
the greenish fate to come closer.
The soldiers have slain one more mother.

Just around the corner,
A bear-shaped night-light
is switched on;
A bold child checks
the shadows under his bed –
There is no monster there,
no monster anywhere.

Darkness, sticky oil slick
defiling human nests;
Homes, broken-open
like profaned coffins;
Green monsters, lurking
in human camouflage
and countless nights,
stumbling over the Earth.

[firefangled]

Another night stumbles over the Earth –

Under his fortress of a bed,
a child waits for
the greenish fate to come closer.
The soldiers have slain one more mother.

Just around the corner,
A bear-shaped night-light
is switched on;
A bold child checks
the shadows under his bed –
There is no monster there,
no monster anywhere.

Darkness, sticky oil slick
defiling human nests;
Homes, broken-open
like profaned coffins;
Green monsters, lurking
in human camouflage
and countless nights,
stumbling over the Earth.

I haven't been online for a couple of days and how wonderful this is the first title I see. I was so struck as to where the monsters actually are.

This reminds me of the rough beast slouching toward Bethlehem in Yeat's The Second Coming.

Excellent, Sweets!

[PrinceMyshkin]

There is something especially effective for me in the personification of the night stumbling across the earth, as if the night itself might prefer to do otherwise if it could but it as helpless as the first of the children.

And it ends without too overt a resolution, as true terror never does seem to have a resolution!

[CdnReader]

Another powerful poem, every bit as striking as all the others I've read by you here. These two lines....



Homes, broken-open
like profaned coffins;


....are like a knife in the heart. Amazing.

[kiz_paws]

I loved the title, very effective, Sweets!

And your lines
Green monsters, lurking
in human camouflage was brilliant, as the thought of something lurking in human camouflage is a thought that has grabbed me when I have read Hesse, Martin Gray, and some of the Russian writers. This sentiment, however it has been put, has made me ponder, and as I read your poem, it too has made me ponder.

Very well done! :)

[qimissung]

This is good-very powerful juxtaposing the innocent child (looking for lurking monsters who are there, just not where he thinks they are) with idea of "Green monsters, lurking in human camouflage..."

[Virgil]

Very interesting Sweets. Your poetry is really improving. I'm fascinated by the sentence "a child waits for/the greenish fate to come closer." Very interesting.

[ampoule]

Yes, how very very interesting. Eerie, frightening. I also love that night stumbling over the earth. It makes me wonder where in you this came from. Very good.

[Pendragon]

Another night stumbles over the Earth –

Under his fortress of a bed,
a child waits for
the greenish fate to come closer.
The soldiers have slain one more mother.

Just around the corner,
A bear-shaped night-light
is switched on;
A bold child checks
the shadows under his bed –
There is no monster there,
no monster anywhere.

Darkness, sticky oil slick
defiling human nests;
Homes, broken-open
like profaned coffins;
Green monsters, lurking
in human camouflage
and countless nights,
stumbling over the Earth.

How heart wrenching! You have captured the horror from a viewpoint that few would have thought of. Perspective came really make a poem! Wonderful work of art! :thumbs_up

[goldenrod]

In conflict it is always the fate of children that sickens me!

While posturing politicians debate the niceties of international law, they allow the dark ages to further creep into the hearts and minds of the young. Those who survive, that is! "Night stumbling over the earth" groping its way through a darkness greater than any moonless night. Fine sad poem...

goldenrod.

[Sweets America]

Thank you so much, everyone! :)

Ampoule, I'm not sure where the night stumbling over the Earth came from. :p I like the image of darkness falling like this, suddenly, and like something that could have been avoided, like an accident. So many accidents out there.

Thanks Virgil. I think I have been improving too, since the beginning. I'm not sure I am going towards my own voice, but I am certainly going towards a certain kind of voice which suits me. :)

Kiz, the lines you love are actually the ones which were the hardest for me to write, I could not find how to define these monsters. Glad you like it.

Fire, I'm very happy that you like my poem, I am always humbled when you like one of my poems. :)