A Little Night Music (Poetry)

Keep up! keep up! — the clock’s conducting
tick-tock tunes the freezer hums
a tuneless dirge for death is lurking
round the corner chaos comes

blustering it howls an encore
chair legs screech on wooden boards
rain’s percussion hisses slyly
interspersed with crashing chords

in the wall a mouse runs beating
frantic time with metric feet
in the loft a spider fiddles —
wraps night music in a sheet

faceless choirs infest the shadows
thin, discordant voices wail —
rising falling — shrill and urgent
while the sleepless quake and quail

dread each movement — every solo
conjures up a nameless fear
zombie lullabies that prickle
creep inside the unnerved ear

rattle deep in the subconscious
drum out rhythms that remain
random as the pulse rate quickens
panic choruses its pain

building to a wild crescendo
numbs the brain’s perverse applause
dying with the last notes trailing
silence as the curtain falls.