After midnight when
Our doubt and fear grow
In the Goblin Hour

by Erin Halfelven

In the Goblin Hour
When the tides of life
Are ebbing lower

Do you ever think
Of floating out
On that dark sea?

'Tween dawn and midnight
When the night deepens
Inward eyes open

In darkness peering
Silently screaming
Goblin doubts and fears

Take our breath away.
Our beating hearts need
A living purpose.

Our minds gibber
At our frightened souls
And smiling goblins

Batten on our fear
In the deeper dark
Of the Goblin Hour.

In that forgotten
Moment of dreams made
Nightmarish visions

We see our best selves
As poor substitute
Beings not human

Unreal imitations
With souls too wounded
To keep us alive.

And so we despair
Of yet becoming
That which we would be.

In the Goblin Hour
The seedlings of dawn
Are planted bright hope

Determination
And necessity
A forest of spears

Rosy points gleaming.
We grasp our goals when
We slay our goblins.