Night Vision
Beneath a waxing moon
And Orion like seven silver nails
Hammered into heaven,
The tawny owls’ hollow fluting,
Lonely as train whistles in the dark,
Reached me from the shadowed woods
And I smiled:
As a child
My bedtime prayer
Was for protection
From their forebears
Who haunted the beeches behind the house.
And I wished the new-hatched brood of terrors
Winging through my wide-eyed nights
Were so easily reduced
To harmless noises on the wind.
Gonecycling (again) 
How well you capture the emotions of childhood fear in this verse.
Thank you Charles – I really was very afraid of them!
I agree with slpmartin’s comment – and I like the turn in the last four lines.
Thank you, John – seems that growing older is simply a process of replacing one set of fears with another!
The hammered, hollow, heaven sets the sound well for those owls. And the heavy rhyme on the ‘child,smiled’ creates a perfect pivot for the shift in thought. Really very good. And yes, credit card bills, work issues, dirty dishes still in the sink, have you put the bins out? haha… I can relate totally.
Wow. Your comments have absolutely bowled me over. Thank you so much!