Facing Your Demons

Have you been held in silent captivity

eyes pried open, forced to stare

directly into the blazing eyes of

your deepest fears made real? 

Detected that rank breath 

steaming on your cheek in the dead of night, 

as you lay paralyzed in the choking air?

~*~

When you scream at the top of your lungs, 

does only the slightest stream of air 

escape your locked jaw and clenched lips? 

~*~

Have you ever felt hot brine

streaming down your face into your ears, 

stilted breaths drowning out the raspy laughs? 

Still unsure of the lesser evil: 

sloshing waterlogged eardrums,

or having to hear every vicious wickedness

ever perpetrated upon you.

~*~

Do you beg your eyes to close 

knowing each impulse travels in vain? 

Are the back of your eyelids

painted with images,

so the fluttering of your lashes

is a movie on permanent replay

splashed across your brain? 

~*~

Mornings, are you released 

into a violent thrashing upstart, 

already awake in a panic

lamenting another day stolen 

by villains from your past? 

Do you wonder why only 

ghosts seem to have

time-traveling prowess? 

~*~

Even once you think you've escaped, 

we both know your dreams

will never be safe.

As the staging point for invasion into 

your current reality, any vanquished foe 

can slip right through. 

Now here you are,  left all alone

fighting bitter demons as if this is

your permanent home.

K.B. Silver