Pavor Nocturnus

Dark haze
constricts my vision
to a short and faded gaze.
Eyes dance inside my head.
Pupils flicker;
animating every silhouette
into an enemy.
Liquid pools of light
banished
by sinister shapes
that writhe and dis-
figure in tinted sight.
My heart tears at my ribs,
trying to escape the entrapment of it’s cage.
These dark demons seem to edge closer…

Bones jar
Lungs spasm
with bursts of air
project between my teeth.

They creep through a heavy silence.
Distorted faces pierce into my skin.
Closer…
Stiff frame, welded against the sheets,
unresponsive.
Wading closer;
pushing past the murky menace.
My fingers summon life;
and crawl towards the cord of the blinds

I beg the thick
opaque barrier
to peel apart and show
rusty oranges, illuminating the
abandoned litter that scurries across
crying blades of grass
and network
of tarmac streams.
The window opens out,
a horizon of solid,
towering,
sky-scraping bars.
They penetrate the hanging black;
causing it to bleed out
crystal shrapnel
upon the sky.

Pearly giant smiles down
flooding my quarters with clarity.
The black beasts burn
and flee at the arrival of pure air.

A room of empty sounds and shapes
stare back at me.
I pull my quilt
guarding me from what remains of night.
My madness and I here to sit alone
until demons return again, where fear will reignite.