Little girl lost
Wandering lonely through streets
Where darkness called from every shadow
As rabid dogs drank ale and traded lies
behind burnished hardwood doors and
butterflies and fairies
sprouted fangs and painted their faces red
howling through alleys and canyons of steel.

Little girl afraid
Nowhere to run. The earth had swallowed
the soft arms that rocked her
and she had cursed the god who
so carelessly dropped the pall
where it could not have belonged,
shaking her fists at the sky in her rage,
fleeing, in her confusion, from all
who could look upon her face
and see pain.

Little girl cold
Shivering in damp doorways
Shying from sympathetic glances
Sliding deeper, always deeper,
into shadows. Finding comfort there
in the velvet masque of darkness
where no eyes could meet hers
to turn away in disgust from
what she thought they saw
within those misted orbs.

Little girl lonely
Seeking companions among blind corpses
with blown out veins and dime bags of dreams
knowing they could not see her
through the mists that swirled
from the candles and the spoons
covering even the face of the moon
as it glared down in accusation
from its solitary journey across
the emptiness of night.

Little girl safe
Wrapped within the arms of Morpheus
While he rocked her gently
and sang the ancient lullabyes
leading her through the golden gates
and into the land of forgetfulness
where she deamed the dreams of Nod
for many years, until life reclaimed her
and breathed into her the will to live again
and sent a son to warm her
and give her back her hope.

Little girl still
Sleeping inside woman
Awakening only at odd moments
When the fangs that life holds sheathed
fly forth and pierce the depths of peace
Awakening in terror, crying out in fear,
pleading for the soothing hand of ancient familiarity,
her childish cries battering against the walls of will
the woman has built, brick by careful brick,
over these oh so many years.

Shhhh...........

.....sleep, little girl....

.............................. sleep.....

phantom...(c) WLA 1-25-2001