BDressing gown on the bedroom door

When we were young we were frightened by
the dressing gown on the bedroom door,
which in the darkest, half dreamt night
transformed into a devilish fiend
come to devour us by dawn.

we had already closed the curtains tight
and checked the blackness under the bed
for who could know when the bug eyed
Bogey man would be lurking in the shadows
waiting to be fed.
(though what we would have done if we had
found him there, was never understood).

And every strange light in the night skies
wasn't an aeroplane, Venus or mighty Mars
but small green slimly skinned aliens
who after sucking out our eyes
would string our innards from the stars.

Then if we survived these horrors
(which invariably we did)
there was always waiting for us tomorow
the biggest kid in school. A bully who boxed
and bloodied noses and would knock your
brains out if he could.
(His mother was a wicked witch
who ate children for supper in her house
in Woolden Woods.

On sundays as we walked to church
starched collars scratching under shining chins
we shuddered at the thought of
THE ALMIGHTY
and the fact he saw all our sins.
and the vicar who was always dressed in black, so had to be a Vampire
Bat.

Strange how the only thing that never
frightened us was death.
He was someone who only came to
the very old, the very weak
(or the criminally insane)

We might be torn apart by demons,
dragons, aliens or bogey men
but in the morning we knew
we would always wake up again.

What now wouldn't we give
to live through such a childhood night
once more.
to be frightened only by
the dressing gown, still hanging
on the bedroom door.