Terror nostalgia

For the NaPoWriMo prompt.

Terror nostalgia

Long ago, night sleeps were deep caverns,
shadow-filled, and silhouettes shifted
before the pale light of the stars.

Long ago, the shadows swarmed
with unspeakable things, limbed and toothed,
their faces a blur of terror.

There was night-silence, long ago,
the pad of wolves made no sound,
but the air sang with wet, clammy vibrations of fear.

I would rather the long ago, with its glittering eyes
that sometimes grinned in complicity
before melting away into another dream,

to these paper dreams, rustling with ominous words,
implacable voices that mouth menaces, all too real,
that no morning light will dissipate.