Spooky Sestina

I saw it first one cold moonless night,

Eyes glinting in the light

From the window

I had opened

Because I had felt something watching

Me as was I lying in my bed.

I found no rest while in my bed

In the cold and dreary moonless night

Because nothing could convince me that something was not watching

Me as I opened

The curtains, turned on a light,

And peeped out my bedroom window.

All I saw was my foolish face reflected back in the window

Pane with the bed

Behind me and the door, which had been opened…

Opened? Did I not close it as I do each night?

I went to the door with my light

And shut it, but still I felt it watching.

So I went back to watching

Out my bedroom window,

A grown man staring with his light

While all those with sense lay still in bed

And do not stay awake on such a night

So cold, when nothing should be opened.

It was staring back at me, through the portal I had opened,

And when I saw it there, I knew that it had been watching

Me for more than just this night.

Grinning hungrily, it advanced toward my window

As I backed towards the weapon I kept by my bed.

Feeling the reassuring weight, I raised my hands, one was armed and the other held my light.

But as I squinted past the light

I saw nothing but the door which had, again, been opened.

Terror flooded my every sense. This was my home, where I slept in my bed

And was supposed to be free from nightmares' watching.

Frantically I shut the door and window

And cowered in my bedroom for the rest of the night.

I do not find rest as I lie in my bed, in my house sealed with locks so that nothing is opened,

And quiver in fear at each whisper or creak because even now I still feel it watching
and waiting each night, on this side of my window, to take me from my light.

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Reflection Paragraph:

This sestina definitely has a narrative focus, with repeated themes of the speaker being afraid of some unknown entity. The themes of the debilitating nature of fear. The voice of the speaker is realistic of someone who is scared and alone. He displays reasonable amounts of self doubt and paranoia while facing this fear. The poem uses enjambment throughout the poem in order to maintain the necessary order of line endings. The overall meaning of the poem is for the reader to relate the fear of the speaker to their own personal fears and to connect to his feelings of vulnerability in his own house. I believe the sestina succeeds at being spooky, since it kind of spooked me on the night that I wrote it :p.