under the covers
I know where the monsters in this house dwell –
not under the beds
but rather,
in them.
I see them at night’s dawn
with crooked soul
and vile perversions.
as they creep past the creaks in the floor
and into my bed.
a safe place
I made my bed behind a wall of stars.
that’s where it felt safest to rest -
in the dark,
alone.
here the ink lies still,
yet to be spilled out over the world
and spun into the shades of violence
it will invariably be.
here it’s an innocuous black.
safe.
it’s the origin
the womb
the bowels of the earth
the depths of the tomb;
where people go to comfort their fears
and quieten their demons
with the swift rasping oath
I won’t try to escape...
so it’s safe
and it’s fear.
I made my bed behind a wall of stars
and in the roar of silence
I watched as the wind stormed the earth
and her wildness stretched and snatched at my skin
until I snapped
and allowed her lunacy to drag me in.
genetics
sometimes I’m afraid to be
alone with my body
in case,
when nobody’s watching
it kills me.
breakable
walking through the woods, I lost my way.
and though I had carved my name in every tree of that forest, I could not find the path back home.
thoughts
cascaded
in
like
wind-blown
leaves.
they blurred my vision and muddied my mind until nothing but air and earth existed…
I did not.
there seemed an infinite plane between
myself and my Self.
I felt the dim bite of dread seep up from my stomach,
through my lungs and veins it froze me stiff with panic.
I heard the world begin to set as the daylight creatures scurried off to silent sleep
and the sun faded with a kiss into the horizon.
I was left,
those quivering minutes,
alone.
it seemed an eternity that,
in indecisive fear
I stood and would, in time, be rooted to the spot as was the forest.
when the gloaming had crawled its way asleep and Morpheus had spread his cloak full across the sky, the night loved me.
the moon in her brilliance shone her light over my body, nursing me into life once more.
I felt the ice thaw inside, and in its stead,
sweet peace arose.
it crossed the fields and turned its eyes upon me.
in gentle kindness it held my hand and never wavered in its pace.
we enveloped ourselves in the blanket of velvet darkness,
glowing from within
and swept along,
through those silent trees,
to home.