A dark thing walks beside me
I cannot see it… I cannot touch it
But I know it is there
It stalks me constantly, gradually siphoning away my soul
Oh, it won’t take my life, no not my life
But my mind it will have
My body it doesn’t want.
Each day … each hour … each single killing minute
I lose a little to this murderous thing
My mind loses a little
My future becomes more forlorn
My past? That disappears slowly behind me
Like the daylight on a foggy evening
And I have given it my unshared tears
As stasis settles in
All joy and love diminishes, all happiness has no future
In this empty shell I am becoming
An empty blank book … no feelings … no hope
Occasionally I imagine I can feel it touch me, this awful thing
Sometimes I awaken in the dark of night and it stands beside my bed
Dark even against the night
And I know it peers at me … into me
And its touch is not physical, just an iciness I feel within myself
It feels like bitterly cold fingers working their way into my chest
My mind screams noiselessly, fighting the deathly fear
But I have not the strength to fight hard
I just accept my shadow
For it is the shadow of myself.
© 2018 Stan M Rogers. All rights reserved.
Stan M Rogers 