Promptly Poetry

Mysteries of the Night

While my neighbors sleep tight, I remain hypnagogic,
         Pondering questions born of shadows.
Sliding on moonbeams, stardust crusaders alight;
         Unbidden they arrive, images colliding under my eyelids.
Pebbles skipped across rippling riverbanks.
         Vaguely fantastic, peculiarly familiar situations—
Unnerving portrayals, reflecting a solipsistic worldview.
         I watch as a bystander, yet also the main character.
Wraiths haunt me, forgotten by day;
         Buried skeletons hack my subconscious,
Chasing me down infinite hallways
         Until I step into our old garden
Stopping to admire immortal white irises
         Stalwart against a thunderstorm.
Fragile bubbles explode—
         Will-o'-the-wisps.
That garden, now forever denied me;
         I have only myself to blame for losing it.
Oh, the mysteries of the night
         When deceased memories return to life
If ever so briefly—so pale—distorted.

20 lines, 128 words, free verse.
Prompt: title required to be "mysteries of the night."

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