Sheath
I think the way the branches loom,
Gnarled, stretched out vines...
Dance and loom right in the shadow of a vine.
Their shadow scrapes across my window like a haggard man with some insane devout word on his lips.
Wild eyes, and crazy. Making me look away from him.
Reaching in, I can see him just about to snatch me and instead he whispers in.
Hand tapping thorny fingers against my window until he's in.
From his thorny hand, to his black iris, I cannot make a peep, I hear him start to say.
"Dream dream. Like thistle and leaves, I'll take away your decay.
Little blossom, Cherry blossom. You'll grow into an adult one day.
And if you give, me a soul to keep, I'll trade away the pain.
Dream. Dream. Thistle and leaves. I'll make it go away."
I close my eyes, squeeze them tight.
I'm not seeing him, but I hear, the devil in form. A penance on the desert beyond my bed.
Frozen in place, I might almost say, please give me what you can.
Instead I can't believe, my open mouth, and answer him this way.
"You cannot have what's not mine to give. I won't trade another soul for your aid.
But if you can, make me stand where I'd rather hang dead, I think we've got a deal.
Chase away, the evil- pray but I'm not looking to make a deal.
No more devils. I see enough."
I know he can't be real.
But if he is, and devil's live, I won't be selling him my soul.
Instead his offer takes a turn, one that I didn't expect.
"I'm not a devil."
I don't believe him, but I can only hold my breath.
"People call me all sorts of things. A devil. Faerie. Shadow Man and all things deft. Call me what you like, but I am offering you a heft. Hefty offers, a promise in gold. I'll carry you on my girl. To sweet adulthood and then you can smile, and the evil woman won't have hold. She can claw and grasp, take our body and muddle my mind, but I will fend her off.
I'll protect you from the evil witch so be that as it may. I'm here to carry you on away, rather than watch you go decay. I only ask you keep me here, a secret kept untold. For I am you and you are I. And I will never cease until you grow on old."
I went quiet, my mind thoughtful. And to be honest, I'll be bold.
I shook his hand and closed my eyes as he snickered from our lips.
The crazy lady. That beast. That hag.
She tried to shake me so, but the demon in me smiled prettily because that's not what she held though.
And here I am, letting my paper man go. He died on my eighteenth birthday so.
I woke up then. A screaming fit, because of all the horror that went untold.
And now I lay, lay myself down to sleep.
The shadow that once unfold.
Who wrapped a girl.
A girl like me, inside his dark embrace and stood bold.