around bedtime

the darkness speaks and if we choose to hear
will tell us what we most desire yet dread
the voices that we hearken when in bed
parental changeless louder year by year
go so much further than the soul can bear
yet are no more than echoes in the head
speaking from memory both live and dead
a spectre that since childhood has our ear
the space between alertness and full sleep
with dreams commingling with ambient sound
is where the gods and demons still have power
their voices commanding us from out the deep
reverberating through all the spaces round
informing us that we have a short hour