There are tiny burnt hands

Bursting through my inner walls

Bringing mercury

Where once my blood flowed through me

Gasping for air I thrash awake

 

Unsettled I rise

Finding not my wife’s safe frame

A space next to me

Where once my world did slumber

Now emptied with cold menace

 

Noises struck me cold

Laughter and crying as one

The piercing ash scream

Unmistakably below

I stumbled for my rifle

 

I find my wife there

Giving birth to a shadow

Such terror I felt

As the shadow came forward

Teeth and bone and gristle bore

 

My sweat stained hand shook

As I did raise the cold gun

Aimed for heart and home

The shots passing through the beast

Striking my wife in the chest

 

Lying by her side

Death in the cold kitchen

Blood pours from within

No shadow left to menace

Just a snuffed candle devoid.