The Living Daylights

Carnival rides that revolve
with sickening speed, ghost stories,
vampire movies, two young boys
left alone on a moonless night
who turn off every light in the house,
pull down the shades, tiptoe
silently from room to room searching
for each other, until the suspense
is nearly unbearable. I’ve never
wanted any of it. Real life
is scary enough: power tools,
cars that mysteriously stop running,
cats that disappear, a man fondling
his girlfriend’s breasts absently
as if turning the knobs of his radio.