The Night Horror Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

the dread

Fear, the paralyzing no-face horror that lurks
in the darkness and squeeze your throat
till you fall into a half sleep, kill me if you most
no, it will not, toying with your distress like
a cat from hell
you are a human mouse it
takes delight when you are incontinent on the steps
of salvation, just one step more but too late
the key has fallen out of your feeble hands and
falls like a silver cross down the steps of hell.