my slumber sanctuary

I couldn't sleep, so I write it out.

"Night Terrors" by Antoine.

Eyes wide open, I stare blindly at nothing of consequence;

Ears quarreling, I listen deafly to the sounds of lonely space;

Mouth motionlessly clarifies the ends of empty means;

And my body settles against the comfort of thoughtless content

As I try, retry to capture fleeting notions' power in my alphabet net.

My fingertips stutter as my mind strays to a thornier bush and

Darkness lays upon me as a blanket to raw skin.

The night beckons me to lie with her and I quiver uneasily;

My friend is hesitation and my enemy is the temptation of fear.

I can feel her presence yearning, pulling me inward

To a destination wrought with unpleasantries.

I turn to face her and I gaze deep into her heart

To find the solitary plague of blackness spreading over

All her eternal prisoners, of which I reluctantly am one.

She sends a message of cautionary horror

Through floating flecks of twitterspec freckles to my irises,

Prancing on her endless blinking black palette.

I am haunted by her bewitching whispered offers and I am

Morbidly astonished at the careless fragility of my happy thoughts.

Shivering, my will collapses and my aching brainstem

Convulsively succumbs to her demands.

In mere moments

My heartbeat accelerates,

I breathe more heavily,

My neuroses tremble at the cursed certainty of insecurity,

And my synapses scream in silent agonizing terror

At the gruesome imagery that has enveloped my consciousness.

Pressed against the cold sheets of my slumber sanctuary

I clench the air, release, and flicker soundlessly back into sleep.

I have been the victim of night terrors.

In the presence of morning I will not recall

What the night has done to me,

But when she dares revisit me next sundown

She will take advantage of my prone condition and

Torture my weeping, scarred and wounded conscience once again.

This she has promised me.