Nightmare Sestina

Under the watchful gaze of the stars,
The slumbering child whispers
in fear.  Within her dreams
she is set upon by shadows,
smothered so she cannot breathe.
She screams and her mind is shattered.

Flashing in the heavens like a shattered
moon, the eternal watchers; the stars
dance beyond mortal reach.  They breathe
brittle light, exalted yet blinding.  Their whispers
resound in the night air, until only the shadows
give shelter and let us retreat to dreams.

When the night comes, the world dreams.
The velvet darkness engulfs.  The shattered
moon begins her dance on a stage of shadows.
A cumulous shroud blankets the stars,
muffling their shrill chatter to whispers,
that the night air may settle and breathe.

And in the nightmare she cannot breathe,
she must tread upon broken dreams;
her heart is torn and shattered.  
Blindly she searches for the stars,
but can find only dust and shadows.

Taunts and jeers fly from the shadows.  
“Momento mori,” they breathe.  
They have won, and the stars
are gone.  No longer will they hide from dreams
of hope and love.  Her shattered
voice can conjure only whispers.

She covers her ears to block the whispers
that slither between sneering lips in the shadows.  
Her skin has been torn and her shattered
eyes bleed.  She struggles to breathe,
but she is lost to the hungering dreams.  
She can find no stars

The stars that witness all do not breathe
while the shadows speak in whispers.  
They are dead until the dreams of lost hope are shattered.