In The Dark Poem by Alto Lee Thomas, Jr.

As darkness falls, a silent figure slithers forth on stockinged feet
Muffled steps on hardwood floors breached bedroom door without a creak
Uneven steps mark the time as lips seeks trough to slake this squalor
Conscience left postponed for now; as lava runs white hot and shallow
All consumed by drunken thoughts of tender flesh and warm delights
A glutton’s swoon heralds the need to feed this darkest appetite

Familiar scents and sickly sighs rasp past rough lips and limbs at lay
Eyes squeezed tightly milking tears; the gut raves raw in painful waves
Fingertips … breach clothes and trust …their trail paves waste amidst the dark
And suddenly, as horror stings the wretched wasp so leaves its mark
Its stench like pies of rotted meat, a stinking, gripping creepiness.
Can this child now grow with pearl and worth without the seed to forgive?

While strapped inside the silence, songbirds scream sweet music to the deaf
Paralysis pours soothing salve as poultice to those wrought bereft
The child laid crushed by weighing years; inhales a guilt with every breath
Tiny palms unite to ply the healing herb of heaven’s help
Shame swells in waves that cannot crest; for hope cannot found or wrest
The child lays vacant feigning sleep, in vain for God his soul to keep