Symbiosis
(in memoriam F.K.)
We learned to live with it.
For the most it stayed in its room.
We heard it move from time to time
(usually when we had guests).
At night it would come out hungry
and suck us dry of our fear.
25 July 1989
People do stuff when it’s dark they’d never think about doing during the day. The darkness frees them, it covers for them. I like the idea of darkness as a thing. In 2008 Ella Burfoot wrote a children’s picture book called
Darkness Slipped In in which Darkness is presented as a character that slips in through the window at night and plays with a little girl called Daisy. It’s a good way to tackle a child’s fear of the dark I think. Personally I was never afraid of the dark as a child but I didn’t like open doors. I still don’t but I’m not as bad as I used to be. That said if I notice my wardrobe door is open as I’m leaving my room I will go back and close it.
The F.K. is, of course, Franz Kafka.
