She cannot work until the world sleeps
with doors locked, windows shuttered
except for those high above
(since no one needs worry about them).
Down from the inky roof she climbs
enters these impossible places
to steal from the dozing people
their most valuable possession.
Creeps inside, past the bewitched dog
ignores the desk and hidden safe
slinks into the children’s room:
sleeping unaware like the dead.
She breathes on them, causing deep
inhalations to lung’s capacity
and sucks out their souls
as they release their breath.
Vitality renewed, youth regained,
she leaves the young cherubs,
now shriveled and prematurely aged,
to be found the morrow and mourned.
She escapes detection leaving
the way she came and flies away
to her casket in the mortuary
until the next new moon’s darkness
and her unlit midnight flight.
