This is a poem about night terrors, in particular sleep paralysis and hallucinations. |
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. |