Night

Night

Damp night,
hyphened by the mad wailings of
dogs set free.

Around me,
the night's colours
bleed through the window grills,
past the red curtains
long since blanched
not soaking them, not even staining them
until they skim over my naked chest
like the clammy limbs of furtive spiders

There, two three maybe five
white hairs curl and bristle gently
in the dark
warped hyphens of silence
standing up to the billowing night

Damp dark,
not my guest now,
no, certainly not invited
on this most baleful of nights.