All Night

All night, sleeping, I push unreal creatures off my chest. They're wild things come to lick the salts from my skin. I smile at first as a corrugated tongue sweeps my collarbone clean. Then, becoming aware of the danger of fangs, I attempt to scream the raw tones of human distress. The sound reaches my ears as a muted grunt, the same low groan that escaped my body as a boy writhing in the sand beneath a dock with a girl who was more woman than child. Now, I am hyper-aware of the weight on me. Its expansiveness feels as large as the dark behind my eyelids. Mercifully, I'm able to break the hold of sleep. The scream that I wanted is finally released. And I look around only to find the bedroom still and quiet as the slivers of moonlight that paint my legs gray.