What's in the Dark?

What’s that between the closet crack?

Something lurking behind your back

Is there a beast beneath the bed?

Or hanging 'bove your downturned head

What’s in the dark? You’re wondering

A face? A tail? A beast? Something

But in the morning they’re all gone,

They light’s chased everything along

You open up the closet crack,

Nothing lurks behind your back

What’s in the dark? There is nothing,

No face, no tail, no beasts, no thing

The nighttime comes, as does the dark,

The dog next door desists its bark

And that must mean the things are back,

Staring through the closet crack

What’s in the dark? What did it bring?

A face? A tail? Yes there is something

Blackness, darkness everywhere,

Things are coming, intent to scare

The house is silent, yet you hear,

Sounds from the closet crack you fear.

What’s in the dark? What’s through the crack?

Spawning beasts born in the black

Your parents tell you that it’s nothing,

Your friends call you a 'baby’, laughing

But there’s something there, a fact,

Inside the dark, waiting to act

What’s in the dark? You know it’s there,

A face, a tail, the beast, its lair

The dark had scarce begun that night,

When you still have most of your sight

You tiptoe ‘cross the carpet floor,

And quickly close the closet door

What’s in the dark? You’ll never see,

No face, no tail, the beast is free

For now that the door was closed,

The monster could go where it chose

And now it fills every shadow and nook,

Disappearing wherever you look.

What’s in the dark? The monster paces,

Around the room, in the black places

Fear fills the dark where the monster flits,

Its eyes watch you with invisible slits

Then in one moment, night-black dyed,

You throw the door to the closet wide!

What’s in the dark? You’ve broke its snare,

Its face, its tail, the beast is there

It’s not hidden behind your back,

You look at it, the monster black

It fills the whole small closet space,

The shadow beast, its nightmare face

What’s in the dark? You stare right at it,

The whole of the beast inside the closet

And then it went without a sound,

Disappeared, never to be found

The beast behind the closet crack,

Was gone where it could not come back

What's in the dark? You know it now,
What's in the dark's what you allow