Dear Night Poem by Effie Yalena Steyn

To the Night,
my sanctuary and saviour,
how I delight in your velvet
folds and soar over rooftops unafraid, in your enveloping
arms. I want you to hold me tight and never relinquish your
safety, solitude, silence, silence.
How I leap when, slowly, softly, you encroach from behind
the redness and slowly lay down your jacket
on this careworn muddy ground for your mistress,
the moon, to be seated upon.
How I dance when, a million miles overhead, one of your children,
a star, leaves a trail for me to trace with my inky fingers.
And how I die when you fade, you relent, you are conquered.
Stay, night, stay and surround me,
stay and seduce me,
stay and protect me from the horrors of the day.