A Light That Leads

Cradled in the arms of night I slept

With one eye open to catch the thread of dream

That haunted me, with sudden motion leapt

From the shadows of my undiscovered self

To pounce upon my chest, its stranglehold

A firm and ever-tightening noose of death.

I fought and grasped those iron wrists, those hands

So cold that threatened to annihilate

The spark of soul and steal its cache of light.

And as its grip intensified I knew,

Within the way to overcome the Fiend.

Attempting to invoke Her help I called

But choking could not speak aloud Her name

With one last breath exhausted I said, "MA".

The steel-like fingers loosed their fatal hold

And in the darkness quickly made retreat,

The demon force ignoble in defeat.

Since last he came the fleeting decades pass

And now within this grateful house there dwells

The Presence and a light that leads and guides.