Poem: Deep in the Dark

Deep in the darkness of night
where the sun never rises,
lost and alone in a plight
you’ll find tickets and prizes.

It’s a fair, it’s a merry-go-round
a carnival ride—can you hear the sound?—
There’s laughing and screaming and I dare not tell
the price that they’ll ask, what they’ll want you to sell.

And what do I have in this place,
alone in the depths of the grave?
I find at the end of my race
there’s nothing of worth here to save.

Still there is something in you
that those ghouls yet desire,
something that’s found in too few,
and from you they’ll require

that your voice and your face—yes, your soul—
be given to them and to their control.
They’ll eat you in there, and they’ll slowly consume
all that you are; in that tent is your doom.

Then where can I go in the dark;
where’s light to be found far from here?
Show hope and to there I’ll embark.
If not, then I’ll stay, so I fear.