Notes About The Poem
Written on June 3rd, 2026 for Ink Empress's contest Musings of the Mind Poetry Contest. For the prompt "I am a dangerous dream..."
After the Storm Growled
Peel back countless layers of moth-ridden curtains.
Feel an accelerating cold breeze brush against goose-pimpled skin,
exiting into the intoxicating unknown.
You walk through a sinner’s overwhelming rain
whilst the darkness washes over.
The scent of copper and iron fills an emptiness
occupying you on this unforgiving path.
The taste of death settles into the cracks of your tongue,
while wisps of moonlight peer through viscous clouds.
Decaying thistles graze against timid ankles,
startling you; a quiet heartbeat increases.
Picking up the pace, surrealistic silence looms.
Abruptly, thunder cracks, shattering through teeth and bone.
Flashes of lightning reveal tombstones tangled in belladonna in the distance.
Damp moss enrobes panicking feet.
Running faster, the scenery turns more sinister.
Trees sway and growl with the storm.
Murders of crows gather.
Dank, murky water blocks the way forward.
With no choice, you must wade through the sludge
as leeches try to suck the life out of your fleeting existence.
The resounding repetition of an uneasy queasiness hits
until you rip your way from the waters.
The graveyard is within sight.
Tearing the nightshade from the granite, it says:
“You should have never stepped into my mind,
for I’m nothing more than a dangerous dream,
swallowing everything I love into this hellscape.”
Petrified and slowly slipping, you reach for the other gravestone:
“Welcome to your new home,
locked perpetually in this comatose state,
mechanically alive, yet lost forevermore—
rotting inside a forgotten shell.”
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