Night Terror
he screams into the night
into the soaring blackness
of the woods the trees
unseen voices
giving voice
to all the words
still there from the night before
and the night before
living breathing words
soft insinuating words
words scuttling sideways
into the soaring blackness
where night begins and he ends
he screams into the night
at children sleeping lovers weeping
lovers sighing children crying
he screams into the night
at the psychologist the demonologist
he could have been a scatologist
his sole ambition
at the age of twelve
to contain his glee
at the desiccation
of the adult’s imagination
Elizabeth Gauffreau holds a BA in English/Creative Writing from Old Dominion University and an MA in English/Fiction Writing. Her work has been widely published in literary magazines, as well as several themed anthologies. Her short story “Henrietta’s Saving Grace” was awarded the 2022 Ben Nyberg prize for fiction by Choeofpleirn Press. She has published a novel, Telling Sonny, and two photopoetry collections, Grief Songs: Poems of Love & Remembrance and Simple Pleasures: Haiku from the Place Just Right. Find her online at https://lizgauffreau.com.