I started hearing noises, sounds

and voices

in the darkness as I stole

the opportunity to sleep a while.

I would jolt awake, full upright

and that in itself would cause pain

down my spine, the creature of nightmares

inside my body

being summoned with mysterious

incantation by a voice that wasn’t there

and wasn’t my own.

 

The sounds I hear are overwhelming,

beautiful and damned, half of the battle

in which I face every day, I just seize

the moment every time to deny