Night Terror

Night Terror

I wander through halls of my youth and open doors to my insanity.

When I dream I am nothing but Solitude's Fear and Silence's Scream.

Standing with my textbooks and hearing the bells ring, a buzz really,

I wonder what my Subconscious Wisewoman is teaching me.

Lockers open and shut and those I knew are but living dead.

Reaching out to a lost friend whose scars adorn her wrists

I yank my hand back as she snaps at me with razor blade teeth.

Pain and anger have changed her and given her to Cruelty

He has painted her once kind eyes a darker shade of black.

I look for the light of my love to give her but light is only for the living.

The door to Classroom 7C opens and the teacher beckons me join.

I sit beside a girl with claws curling into spirals and pull out a blank sheet.

The caricature of every educator I have ever known calls class to order.

A call for our writing assignment and my blank sheet is stained and aged.

Symbols meaningless adorn the paper but a perfect score is given.

Bell rings again and out into the hall of the undead students.

I find my own locker and with a flick of my wrist it is empty

As empty as the hand that once held textbooks and bloodstained paper.

Instinctively I know where I must go but I pray for release instead.

Sometimes God's answer is "no" and I learned the lesson with loss.

I do not sing well but nonetheless belong to the school choir.

The director takes us through our vocal warm-ups do-mi-re.

She smiles at me and her lips split at the seams tearing to her ears.

I fumble for my sheet music magically appearing in my hand.

We do not sing for song is beauty but we chant coarsely in ancient tongues.

Re-entering the hall my fear builds to hysterical panic.

I try to scream for God for Jesus for Mom for Dad for Bubba for Wakening

But my mouth cannot move and I run slamming into locked door after door

Mercifully a door at last opens and I run only to find myself trapped
       among tombstones.

Those of my past followed me and only to ask me to lunch--as the main course.