WAR

I see the walls snake and slither towards me

It’s not drugs, just my paranoia coming to say hello

Making sure that I am never at ease

How dare you relax, it says, right before going to bed

The fingers of fear massage my brain

Pulling it apart and implanting ideas

Is the door locked? All of them?

All the windows too? Better double check

With ever door handle jiggled and window latched

The demons still do not go to rest

That shadow moved, it taunts

What if someone is hiding in your closet?

What if someone is watching you?

What if upon what if’s piles up to form a wall

A wall of crushing self doubt waiting to fall on me

Armed with a blanket and a miniature baseball bat

I wait, hunkered in my fortified bunker

(my bed with the lights on)

I wait for an enemy that will never come

Haven’t they already won, if I jump at my own shadow?