Amitriptyline

You must protect them.

The girls

Huddle together

In our doublewide.

You must protect them.

He is at the window.

Pale eyes rolling in slime,

Yellow drool glistening on his lips.

Decay permeates the room.

His gums are peeling up:

What a sick smile.

You must protect them.

The girls, my girls,

They tremble,

Holding to each other’s

Frail wrists…

Are they praying?

His eyes bulge at me,

And I can hear him…

You cannot protect them.

I feel a squeeze.

My mind blanches.

My body atrophies.

I cover my ears,

I close my eyes.

When they open,

The chaos is no longer

Within

But all around.

The cachectic stretch of an arm

Reaches through my window.

His skin is blistered,

Wounds dripping and festering.

The arm whips and lashes,

Puss weeps onto the carpet.

I long to scream.

Waxen fingers curl in red hair.

He has one of my girls.

I cannot move to her,

My legs are liquid beneath me.

My jaw uselessly chomps at

The air.

He pulls her,

Howling and writhing,

Toward the hollow of his mouth.

It gapes and gulps with anticipation.

That smile

Remains even

As her skull turns to mush

Between the

Flapping of his lips,

And the

Clacking of his teeth.

Her blood and hair string like

Yarn between

The plaque of his fangs.

His eyes on me again:

You cannot protect them.

Not from me.

That smile again.

If only I could move…

My girls run madly

Around the room.

I try to yell to them:

Stay away from the window

But I cannot…my mouth

Is a hinge that swings and grins,

But no longer speaks.

And they go too close…

And his eyes never leave mine

As he eats them one by one,

You cannot protect them.

He is right…

There are none left.

Their cries thicken in my head,

Their wails smother me

From the inside out.

The noise swells within me,

Pouring movement back into the

Stiff of my body.

My legs reform beneath me.

I run to the window,

But I do not see

Outside.

I see within.

My reflection:

She has pale eyes,

A phony smirk,

And as I watch the blood ooze down her chin,

I feel it rolling down my own.

You cannot protect them.

Not from yourself.