The Bogeyman

As dusk and dark come earlier when time approaches Autumn and Winter bringing calm cold mists to the streets, the lights throw shadows and shapes that awaken imagination and fear.  Are they all fleeting shadows or is there one that is something else.  The Bogey Man.  His abnormality has made him a figure of rejection.  Something other than the accepted normal.  But he is afraid and he longs only for acceptance and inclusion.  The Bogey Man is a metaphor for the less advantaged and those rejected by our boundaries and our definition of sanity.

What I really like about this character is that it’s quite difficult to discern whether he’s a bad, malevolent  and frightening figure of the dusk and darkness or is he rejected because he’s just different and fails to fit a widely accepted “norm”.  Because of the Witches curse he’s bound to be different.  In today’s society if you don’t fit – you’re marginalised.  A bit like this that I wrote in 1975:

You’re born in your little capsules,

And people rejoice at that.

You’re picked up and thrown to society

As simple as throwing a hat.

You’re trained to do marvellous tricks

In a most extraordinary way.

To waste all your time doing trivial things

And to sit in the office all day.

But you think you are so independent,

Though it would come as quite a shock

To learn that you’re not independent at all,

But a slave of societies’ clock.

Now day after day you are dying,

And into a pipeline you fall.

You think you are so very learned,

In reality you know nothing at all.

Your car gives you freedom of travel

To fresh air, an instant solution.

But by taking your car to the country so far

You are killing yourselves with pollution.

Safe in your miniscule capsule,

Your life’s like a withering flower.

For years pass so fast and your dice they are cast,

And under their fate do you cower.

Time has gone by you so fast.

You may look back in realization.

But dreams now are lost like sun melts the frost,

And your calls are not heard by the nation.

You’re born in your little capsule.

In your capsule you’ll always remain.

In your capsule you’ll lie, you’ll wither and die,

If you don’t they’ll brand you insane.

So The Bogeyman is alone apart from his companion The Cat.  For him it wasn’t a matter of choice though.  It was a curse that sent him remorsefully to the shadow times.  The curse took away his freedom to have friends and play as other children do and banned him from the day, forcing him into a terrifying dark world of existence.  He grew up seeing things at the changing time of night and day that were robbed from him and simply longs for someone to reach out to him and care.