Prisoner

another poem in the collection I'm working on where each piece is about a different dream I've had

I dreamt of a dream where

in it I thought I woke from sleep

during the darkest hour of night

from the sound of the flipping

of a book’s pages- yet

I was alone, my vacant

home's sole companion.

Startled I stood, fear beating

through my throbbing veins

when suddenly hissing fog

blacker then the hour

crept through my walls

filling my floor with shadows

that screamed with my fear.

It paralyzed me, holding me

down onto my bed. My tears

began to fall across

my static face as my limbs

struggled against the

shadow's choking embrace.

I was stuck behind

the bars of the fog’s cell

and when I cut through

its penetrating ropes,

I only found myself

waking as a prisoner

once again; my escape

having been an illusion,

for in the shadow’s claws

I was still stuck

and every time I tried to run,

the scene was repeated

again and again

until my dream finally

released me and I was set free

from its grasp, but not from

the fright I felt upon

remembering the images

as they stalked my mind,

and in my bed I shook all night,

waiting for the tick of my clock

To bring me the sunrise.