When Midnight came to call,
we were asleep,
dreaming gossamer promises
on fat, puffy clouds of comfort.
We were sedated.
Full to our teeth
with self aggrandized portions,
helpings heaped with our satisfaction
and swimming in a rich sauce
of wanton disregard.
Of course,
we had not been shy
with the wine of opulence
and the spirits
distilled from our entitlement.
It is our lot to dine as such
and such a meal
would make anyone drowsy;
so no one heard the doorbell
when Midnight came to call.
We have never locked our doors.
Why should we have to live in fear?
We worked so hard
for a free and open society;
locked doors just show that we’re afraid.
Besides, this is a large, private community,
patrolled by security,
who could do harm here?
That is why,
when Midnight came to call,
he rang the bell,
twice,
and when no one responded,
he tried the door,
found it unlocked,
and let himself in.
Our dogs,
of course,
did not bark.
We had long since removed their voice boxes
and their claws
and their testicles;
so when Midnight came to call,
he stood inside the door
and the dogs looked at him for a moment,
puzzled.
They had never met anyone like Midnight,
but his scent reminded them
of something old.
Something ancient and primal,
so when Midnight reached out
his pale hand towards them,
the dogs just sniffed it
and decided that Midnight
would be their new master.
Midnight gave each dog
a scratch behind the ear,
then they lay down quietly.
We woke
with an inexplicable feeling of trepidation,
but it was only indigestion
and after a quick trip to the toilet,
we were again fast asleep.
Then, in the darkest moment of the night,
before the sun begins its way to the horizon,
we woke again
and there was Midnight,
standing inside our bedroom door.
We shouted at him to get out,
but then he was standing at the foot of the bed.
We threatened to call the police
and reached for the phone,
but we were paralyzed with fear.
We were terrified.
This couldn’t be happening.
We had passed laws,
making it illegal for Midnight to return.
We had barred and banished
Midnight from our communities.
We had educated generations
of our children
that Midnight was not welcome
in our homes,
in our cities,
in our world.
Midnight just stood there,
now at the bedside,
looking at us
with deep, black, eternal eyes.
His face was unremarkable,
if pale.
His expression verged on disinterested.
Then he opened his mouth,
but no words came out.
Instead, he exhaled a great breath
of all our greatest fears.
Death, disease, mediocrity, madness, violence,
ugliness, deformity, poverty, war,
famine, hate and abandonment;
all these and more.
When Midnight came to call,
he returned to us
the world we thought domesticated.
He brought us back our pain,
our discomfort, our tragedy
and our humanity.
When Midnight came to call,
he spoke in words that were nightmares,
that woke us from our dreams
and gave us back our terror
and our lives.
HG – 2016
