Fred is Back

In the silence while I sleep,
Something creeps up next to me.
I feel it pounce, I feel it thud
I hear no sounds, but I feel the rub.

My heart pounds, what can it be?
I look around, black is all I see.
I pull the covers tight to my chest
I pray to God for more hours of rest

Tick tock, the night ticks away
How many hours until darkness fades?
What is this thing, this invisible beast?
Why does it come, will it ever feast?

Sleep overtakes me once again
In my dreams I see rats and sin
I’m gripped by something, bound and chained
My hope is fleeting, my blood is drained.

And then the silent thud returns
I awake again, my chest it burns
I sit up and look towards the door
What is that I hear? Is that a snore?

Then something sinister beside me stirs
I hear it breathing, I hear it purr
The rhythmic noise, I cannot escape
I lie back down and accept my fate.

This poem is inspired by true events. Lately at night when I go to sleep I awake because of a noticeable thud on my bed. It is a small thud, the exact way my cat used to feel when it would jump on the bed when I was younger. Our cat’s name was Fred and Fred died in our house when it burned back in Oct of 1990. I know that I am probably imagining the thud on my bed at night, but believe me, it seems very real. I always awake and I look and nothing is there, but I imagine it. I imagine the Cheshire Cat with an evil grin and red eyes looking at me. However, it doesn’t want to eat me, instead it wants to crawl up on my chest and knead it the way my cat Fred used to do.