Afraid of the night

[Luckieman]

Afraid of the night

Edit 2.0

Childhood is afraid
of the night, the thin hands
of malevolent ghosts. Youth is unafraid
of the night, with its host
of stars like sheep, in the land 
of a pale goddess the moon.

Mid life is afraid 
not of night, but the soon
coming dawn, upending 
respite and dreams of the past
where it hides from the future, not a friend.

Old age is afraid 
of the night once again, 
of the one 
with no light,
with no end.

I'm really only commenting on structure and emphasis here, not overall meaning, which seems fine.
The line

   of malevolent ghosts. Youth is unafraid

seems to me to beg to be broken between ghosts and Youth so the segmenation of ideas remains consistent with Childhood, Mid life and Old age. As it stands, as a structural anomaly it jars a bit. Similarly, I might change

  of stars like sheep, in the land 
  of a pale goddess the moon.

to (allowing for your deletion)

   of stars like sheep,
   in the land of the moon.

in aid of clarity and emphasis, and

  where it hides from the future, not a friend.

might gain emotional strength by breaking it as:

  where it hides from the future,
  not a friend.

thereby emphasising ' not a friend.'

Finally (a minor point) 'mid life' might be clarified by hyphenation: mid-life, to avoid misinterpretation as 'amid life'

Hope this helps.