Modern-day Caveman

Prickling fear blooms behind my eyes.
I scan the darkness for shapes
to fit my memory of the room.

Shapes which don’t shift closer
when I look away.

Shadows with spiked horns and red-glow stares blend with the sofa
as I walk through from my midnight pee.
They wait for my eyelids to relax and close.
I see them.

I see them, but I know
they won’t do a thing until
I fall asleep.

With their jagged claws and rotting breath,
their gaping jaws and bleeding death,

the lighting bill is killing me.