Bedtime Story for a Little Girl

Let me tell you a story you don’t want to hear
About Love and Death and a roomful of fear

In the light and darkness of this full-moon night
Is the promise of earthly and ethereal delights

Love manifests Himself in His own capricious fashion
And comes to my bed as a dazzling apparition

His lips are full and red, His eyes are a colorless gray
His hair is the color of moonbeams, reflecting the dawn
                                                                              sun’s rays

“I am Love, come to offer you Myself,” He whispers
“If you should turn Me away, you will be cursed.”

I huddle into my bedsheets, trembling in fear:
This is a promise I would never wish to hear

“I will hurt you, I will make you cry,
“I will give you Happiness on Whose wings you’ll fly

“Embrace me, and you’ll always bleed and bruise,
“And around your neck will hang a hangman’s noose

“Turn Me away, and so help Me,
“You'll find only dolor in your destiny

“Now that you have heard Me out, you must make your
                                                                                      choice:
“Do you prefer eternal misery or a savoring of partial
                                                                                     joys?”

I dread to make my decision, I will neither desire
One or the other, it is a leap into infernal fire

But soft steps suddenly sound across the room
Slowly a shadow appears and over Love it looms

Then I see Her, and I recognize Her at once
Then my quavering fear Love’s immediately becomes

“Hello, My Love,” She says, and then gives Him a kiss
“It is such a pleasure to see You again, it really is.”

She smiles with the brilliance of the midday sun
And Love’s colors immediately begin to wan

She shimmers like an aurora, an exquisite sight to behold
She is far removed from what you have all heard told

No black cloak does She wear, nor does a scythe carry She
She holds no hour-glass in which trickle the sands of
                                                                              eternity

She is not foreboding, she bears not iniquity
Her aura is one of tenderness and of tranquility

In Her calming presence I grow less afraid
My trembles do subside and my awful dread does fade

But Love recoils and seems to want to flee Her company
As She stands before my bed and smiles gently down at
                                                                                             me

“My child, I have come,” She says, “to offer Myself as well
“But I offer you neither a partial heaven nor a complete
                                                                                            hell

“Love fears me greatly, as you can clearly see,
“But it is only because He does not at all know Me

“He thinks He will cease to exist when I am near
“And this fallacy is His greatest fear

“I am everywhere He is, and everywhere He’s not
“I am the end and genesis of everybody’s lot

“Now, if you wish, you may take my hand
“Or if you’ll not, I will come to you again

“So speak, my child, give Us your answer
“What you will choose of what We two may offer.”

Love holds out His hand and in it I see a butterfly
It flits and flirts about, but in true liberty it cannot fly

For a moment I am mesmerized by its beautiful wings
For a moment I am tempted by the promises it brings

I turn to Death, and see She holds not out her hand
She only smiles and waits, and silently she stands

Then in my night-bed to my window I turn
And as I gaze at the full moon, I make my decision

This is a story you might not want to hear
Of Love and of Death, but no longer of fear

“I have made my choice,” I say, “and my choice is You.
“I will accept any consequence which to me is due.”

“Very well,” Love says; and, “Very well,” says Death
Then one vanishes into the night, and only one is left

On my back, I feel a pair of wings begin to grow
They are incandescent like a fire-fly’s glow

These wings are lovelier than anything I’ve seen
And my spirits feel lighter than they have ever been

“I am ready now,” I say, and prepare myself for flight
My wings unfold, and I take Death’s hand and fly into the
                                                                                            night

So this is the story I tell that you may hear
It is of Love and Death, and not at all of fear