The Incubus

I stand alone in the silence.
Hidden in shadows.
Watching you.
Waiting for you.
 Lay down your head for me.
Pull the covers up to your chin.
Close your eyes and dream.
So soft.
Feeling safe and untouchable.
Innocent.
 Pure and chaste
I stand alone.
In the silence.
Waiting for you.
In shadows.

Breathing slow and deep.
My cold breathes hanging in the air.
The patience and stealth of a knife.
Hiding in the darkest closets of your mind.
Wanting you.
Needing you.
Bleeding you every night for life and love.
Building insatiable desires in you.
 Little passions and jealousy’s.
Feelings of wantoness.
Of dread.
Filling you with apprehension.
That strips you and rapes you.
Holds you down and takes you.
Like a cold stiletto.

Slide into slumber.
Dream your little dreams of me.
The sandman cometh.
He is my ally.
I cross your room like a cold draft.
A whispering death
Painless and patience.
Silent and slow.
Confident and final.
Hovering over you like a reflection of yourself in your sleep.
Watching you breathe the breath’s that I will steal from you.
So slowly.
With lips so cold.
So wicked and thin.
So blue.

Touching cold lips to yours.
Soft slow deep kisses.
Kisses of death.
 Slowly drawing the warmth from you.
Breath by breath.
Deeper and deeper.
The life from you.
Heartbeat by heartbeat.
Faster and faster.
You tussle and twist in my grasp.
You try to turn your head away.
 I defy your escape.
My nails dig into your white shoulders.
Perched above you like a crow on a wire.
Like prey you are

Gasp for me.
Your last breath.
Thrash and flail like flotsom and jetson in a storm driven sea.
Overwhelmed.
Suffocating.
Drowning.
Feel your fingertips slip through mine.
As you fall through the ice.
So fragile so frail.
So weak.
So drained.
So little left to give.
Open your eyes.
Look into mine.
Watch the curtains fall.

Letting you hang in a balance.
Teetering.
Tottering.
Between life and the eternal.
Hanging on to the last straws of everything you once knew.
Don’t fight it.
Be mine.
Let go.
Past the point of return.
Feel the little death building in you.
Release it.
Set yourself free.
Lay your head back.
Scream your silent scream.
Surrender.

Go limp in my arms.
Lie for me
Die for me.
Kill for me.
Tell me.
Who do you love?
Now.
Who posesses your heart.
Your soul.
Should I pull you back from paradise?
Should I let you see the light of another day?
Or should I let you slip away.
Through my fingertips.
Fall.
Say hello to heaven?

Would I catch you?
Should I hold you?
Rock you in these lonely arms.
So radiant and soft.
Dizzy and flushed.
Still warm.
All your innocence transgressed and violated.
Your heart faintly beating.
Breathing soft.
Barely.
Lay your head on my shoulder.
Cold
Sated.
Blood on my lips.
Flesh beneath your nails.

Evil.
Wears a friendly face.
Love.
Wears a crown of thorns.
When I smile at you.
Tip my crown.
You wear it all well.
I lay you back.
Into the warmth of your bed.
Cover you with kisses of death.
Like a cold sheet.
Bon nuit mon cheri amour.
The dawn soon approaches.
I must leave you.
In peace.
For now.

 On the brink of death.
Till next we meet when the shadows are dark.
The room is silent the drafts are cold.
Patience is my virtue.
In the silence.
Waiting for you.
In shadows.
Lay down your head for me.
Close your eyes and dream.
I cross your room like a cold draft.
A whispering death.
Touching cold lips to yours stealing your baby breaths.
Like a cat.
The thief in the night.
The incubus.

Copyright 2001 Charles Coakley Simpson