Scare
by Mary Audrey Kneipp

Who doesn’t crave a horrible scare—
wake up at night to the blood-dripping stare
of the hideous incubus Suk-Awya-Air?
Its teeth green and yellow, sharper than needles,
its drooling a dripping of spiders and beetles,
its mouth so wide open to growl, shriek and howl,
you can smell what’s inside it, including its bowel.
You cannot move and you cannot breathe
and you cannot remember a prayer,
and all you can think of, and all you believe
is how much you love a horrible scare.
 

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