Nightmare In Man

In darkest hours 'fore dawnlight wake,

A shadow stirs, a form does take.

Not beast, not ghost, not creeping fiend,

But nightmare born in flesh unseen.

It walks where footsteps should not sound,

It breathes where life is not unbound.

A hollow thing, yet filled with woe,

A human mask, yet none to know.

It smiles with lips too wide, too thin,

A laugh that crawls beneath the skin.

Its eyes, black wells, deep voids untamed,

Reflecting sorrow, reflecting shame.

It whispers secrets we dare not tell,

It knows the guilt we hide too well.

It calls up names we long forgot,

And draws us into knotted thought.

The Child of Fear

A child once dreamed of something bright,

But woke to silence, empty night.

No mother's hand, no father's voice,

Just endless dark, a world too choice.

The walls closed in, the air grew thick,

The echoes shrieked, the stars took flight.

And in that void of breathless air,

The child first beheld the visage of nightmare's stare.

It stretched its hand a bony hand,

Cold and dry as a stone in the land.

It did not strike, it did not pain,

It simply whispered, called his name.

"Come now, little one, don't you see?

You and I, we're meant to be.

Your screams, your tears, they give me might,

So let me in, and I will take flight."

And when the morning did dawn again,

The child was different, the child retreated.

No merry laughter, no crying plea,

Only vacant eyes where dreams should be.

The Lover's Terror

A woman waits, a candle burned,

Her heart, her love, yet not concerned.

A door swings open, a shadow tall,

A presence wrong, a night to fall.

He stands inside, yet feels so far,

His touch is ice, his words are scar.

His eyes are glass, his heartbeat slow,

A man she loves, yet does not know.

And when she speaks, her voice becomes thin,

A whisper lost to inner winds.

For in her mind, a fear starts

A truth too large to now pretend.

This is not love, this is not he,

This is the thing that haunts dreams.

A husk, a shell, an empty grin,

The nightmare worn beneath his skin.

It takes her hand, it strokes her hair,

It holds her close as death reveals there.

It sips her warmth, it steals her breath,

It loves her deep in waking death.

The Old Man's Guilt

It walks the halls where ghosts do roam,

A past that whispers, walks along with him home.

Its hands have built, its hands have torn,

Its soul is old, its heart is worn.

But every night the dreams return,

A pyre ignited, a body burned to learn.

A voice that screams from dust and grave,

A sin so large, a life he slew.

He sees the face, he hears the screams,

He smells the blood, he drowns in dreams.

And in the darkness where truth is rare,

The nightmare waits to pull him there.

It takes the form he cannot lose,

It wields regret, it does not choose.

It stands in front of him, smiles so wide,

And whispers, "Old man, step inside."

And so he walks, he does not resist,

He follows shadow into mist.

For in his bones, he always knew,

The nightmare was himself, duplicated.

The Beast in Us

Oh, accursed malady that haunts mankind,

The nightmare is within the brain.

Not ghost nor monster, nor crawling thing,

But human horror in invisible wing it clings.

It lives in whispers, hides in thought,

It feeds on agony long since brought.

It knows our pain, it knows our name,

It twists the world into its aim.

And in the mirror, if you should gaze,

Beyond the flesh, beyond the haze,

You’ll see it staring, see it grin The Nightmare That Lives Within

It speaks in voices, cold and soft,

A lie of lies.

It whispers things you'd rather not hear,

Your failure, shame, your worst nightmares to fear.

It is the uncertainty in love that was true,

The trembling hands, blue skies that tell.

It is the whisper in darkness at night,

The knowledge that you had lost the battle.

It is the burn at the back of the eyes,

The burden of sorrow in disguise.

It envelops your face, it robs your breath,

It draws you close unto death.

But yet, we wake, we rise, we struggle,

We chase the dream, we seek the light.

We shut our eyes, yet morning breaks through,

And in the sun, the shadows quiver too.

But while the nightmare fades with dawn,

It never truly goes away.

For in our hearts, in dark, dark space,

It waits once more to fill its place.

It needs no claws, it needs no chains,

Only human pain, only human sorrow.

For nightmares wear no monster's skin

They live and breathe deep within.

The nightmare always lives within.