Dark Wanderer

by M. Teresa Blaylock

I live in luminescent candlelight,

To whisper on the edges of your brain;

I roam in velvet shadows, cloaked in night,

Or float within an ancient, odd refrain.

I visit the incurably insane,

Who in my presence do not shake with fright;

For they have nought to lose, and less to gain --

I live in luminescent candlelight.

In poets and musicians I delight,

For always in their heads they hear the strain

Of ghostly music, stirring second sight --

To whisper on the edges of your brain.

Beneath your satin bed-sheets I have lain,

As restlessly you toss from left to right;

You close and bar your windows all in vain --

I roam in velvet shadows, cloaked in night.

Your wild imaginations I excite,

And weave forbidden pleasure from your pain.

To you I sing your sad, forsaken plight,

Or float within an ancient, odd refrain;

And when at last a frigid, winter rain

Falls down and you must pull your wrappings tight,

I ride in silence on the midnight train,

And you are free of me; but never quite --

            I live.

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M. Teresa Blaylock is a full-time student and freelance writer. She has been published in Poesia Magazine, and recently won the 2007 James T. Whitehead Sonnet or Sestina Prize. You can visit her on the web at: http://www.geocities.com/silvenechoes