Serpent

Fear was first, or was it darkness?

I was too young to tell them apart.

A serpent crawled to our bed

As mom was lost in peaceful slumber,

Guarded by her dreams.

No one to shield me from my own

Slithering terror, coiling in my gut,

And the creeping loneliness

Being awake and alone in the

Dark.

I was only a child, I believed it was real

Years after, until I sharpened my vision.

Then I saw what it was:

It wasn’t the serpent I feared,

But loneliness,

To be the only one awake,

The only one to see

These visions,

The only one to fear

Death.

I gazed within and saw the hidden gem

I was never truly lonely.

My mind made a pact with the serpent,

Conjuring it to fill the void within

With the illusion of fear,

Bewildering what is true.

That fear was not my nightmare,

But the shadow my soul was casting,

Separated by the divine will.

The sacred yearning of the soul

To be whole was denied by the mind

Unable to accept the

Truth.

I’m not my mind,

My soul could have a dream of its own.

A serpent was there to ask me

“Who am I?”

A young me might have responded “I’m fear”.

But I am the light of my soul,

So I kept shedding it, finding power,

As I gazed into the serpent’s eyes,

While it coiled its wisdom around my soul,

Seeing nothing but my own self,

Immortal.