Benefits of a Chemical Imbalance

The midnight noises hastened me to bed.

I sat reading as long as I could until I felt the sweat from my brow drop to my hand.

I raised my distraught and shaking body from the chair,

in quivering, breathy silence,

so not to stir arousal from my haunter.

Stubbing my toe on the useless ottoman,

I flew into a stumble, catching myself with the corner of the doorway.

Funny,

I hit one corner only to jump back and hit the other.

Well,

not funny.

More like,

by god, get me away from this bane at my door.

Every floorboard creak became a threatening whisper,

with every breath it felt as if somebody was watching me.

The police?

No,

they would only see an aging man in pajamas,

and of course hear nothing.

Why would they,

sometimes the demons we hear are of our own design.

So was my imagination trying to give me a heart attack,

or was there somebody,

something,

scratching to get in?

Newly illuminated room and all was still not fine.

I recall a childhood moment when I was so scared that I was peeing on myself,

I made a promise to the little version of me that I would never be that scarred again.

I pride myself in keeping promises,

but as the pee raced down my leg I promised that I would never make another promise.

I pulled my knees to my chest and listened to my ragged breathing.

Pathetic.

This is a man?

Maybe a man ready to break.

The seems of my sanity started to unravel,

the more I wanted daylight to be birthed,

the more deafening the noises became.

My heart was pulsing in my throat,

my stomach bottomed out,

and everything I heard was followed by a brief hello from tachycardia.

I never held myself as hard as this before,

it was like I was hoping that if I squeezed hard enough I would fall into a light dimension,

never again seeing the shadow of night creeping up around me.

It was homing in on me,

my teeth chattered.

A voice shattered the darkness,

entering unwelcome.

Head,

under pillow,

trembling.

The sound,

somebody walking on broken glass that had been strewn over loose gravel.

Hell itself had come.

Frozen,

the bed becoming grave.

Reviews

[1VJ]

An unnerving piece of poetry, really grabs you by the throat.

"sometimes the demons we hear are of our own design" -- most times.

[Einstein Noodle]

wow! totally held to the reading of this ... so many places to relate and extrapolate .. damn! in this line:"The seems of my sanity started to unravel," i think you mean seams .. and this line:"it was like I was hoping that if I squeezed hard enough I would fall into a light dimension," just (for me) is a killer .. what a mind you have opened for readers to wander through a bit .. love it ..easily a thriller if made into a novel ..or even short story .. which it is anyway .. very cool write for me!
E.

[Chris]

A psychological "thriller"? I love my nightmares, I earned every one.