Shows her in shades of green
Night vision of our daughter
Crying out in her sleep
Is twenty months too young
To have nightmares?
Is it something we have done:
Raised our voices
In frustration or anger
Dunked her in water
Made her climb stairs
Let her walk on hot sand?
Surely what plays behind her eyes
Is not what wakes me at night -
A world gone mad
Man's savagery to man?
But then children
Are fleshy antennae
Receiving the world on a frequency
Adults cannot understand
So we call it fear of the dark
The impenetrable night
Leaching warmth and light
Hiding monsters and men alike
Projecting onto our progeny
That all too human need to be
Soothed by comforting hands
© shaun patrick green 2016
