The Name of the Night

Morning darkness

Evening flames

Singing in the forest

Speaks unholy names.

From the cabin 

Listening wiled

A family of three

Ma, Pa, and child.

Sunlight lost

In branches thick

Critters hide

Or felled and sick.

The early birds

Retreat their branch

The infant moans

Its skin gone blanch.

Pa retrieves his arm

Loads a musket ball

Opens wide the door

As the lyrics call.

Candle wax in his ears

He follows the sound

Barrel straight ahead

Prepped to fire the round.

In the clearing lit

By glowing eyes

The upright goat 

Shows no surprise.

It speaks new tongue

Known to Pa from youth

"This song is not yours

Unwelcomed your couth."

Pa unloads the round

Echoed through the wood

The goat falls dead

Then he understood

Heart and foot race

To the cabin norms

Upon the wooden floor

Lie two cold forms.

 

To his bosom

His family he hold

Tears flow like madness

Secrets lost are doled.

The song of the forest

Protected his kin

From his dark upbringing

His forbears' sin.

A glance askance

A shape in the door

The goat on two legs

Said, "Sing I no more.

Lest ye learn

To discern shade and light

Angel and devil

Ye are the night.

Beauty can be bad

Demons can be good

The earthly eye is blind

Till death removes its hood."