Grey Mommy

A woman came to the window
as my son played between the glow of moonlight
and the dim light of a lamp.

I heard the scream and ran toward my son’s room
but he was gone.
All I saw in his place was the grey lady’s face.

I fell to my knees and cried
as the grey lady’s long bony hands
extended from her gaunt frame.

She held my face in her hands
and whispered you’ll never see him again.
Her eyes were sunken and rotted into dimples of decay.

Then a voice from behind me said mommy, “now you see her too?”
My son’s face flashed in my mind as the grey lady snapped my head left, then right
and my son said, “time for goodnight.”