Nightmare

I am 17 and too old
For nightmares come
To life next to my face,
But they do and I still
Remember waking from
A troubled after school nap
About a black velvet flying
Shape hovering inches from
My face and as I wake I see
It on the window screen
Only inches from away with
A wingspan large as an
Open hardback book.
I moved away and stared at
The black velvet shape
Attached to the screen,
I used a paperback book
To tap the screen and the shape
Like an incredibly large moth
Flies away from its shady
Perch and disappears away.
In the Amazon lecturing on
A ship 53 years later I rose
Early to walk the dawn deck
Before the crew washed away
All the night creatures from
The deck before the passengers
Saw what ruled the night.
I walked carefully in the dim
Light and saw on a lifeboat
Above my head a large black
Velvet shape as large as my
Old nightmare and just
As alive and horrifying
As it flew away over the
River toward the tree line
And disappears again.
Strange to see an old
Nightmare come to
Life twice but I
Smile as I have
A good story to
Tell my sister
Susan whom
I share a cabin
And a lifetime
With and
Who may
Raise an
Eyebrow in
Amusement.