The Black Milk

Don’t drink the black milk

From the breast of night,

Though it is sweet and

Makes you drunk.

It will make you forget

That the stars are even there,

That daylight is coming

To blind you and bind you

In a sleep saturated

With irredeemable dreams.

Some have howled in darkness

For years, waiting for the moon

To appear.

One can catch a glimpse of them

In the alleyways, their faces mangled,

Their eyes wrenched with

No more tears.

One can hear them muttering to themselves

Some dark and bitter verse—

A devil’s prayer.

Don’t drink the black milk

From the breast of night.

It will fill your very bones
With despair.