In Times of Almost Madness
Today we played, my friends and I,
In rain in the city streets.
We laughed aloud and teased our games,
Rendering our joy complete.
The day was full of exhilaration.
The sun joined bright and warm.
Tomorrow I’ll meet my friends again
To feel the water and the storm.
But tonight, I will spend with you
Sharing secrets of a hurtful past
Told as gilded tales
By an immoral sociopath.
I share to you with confidence
One of my poignant dreams.
A tale of stirring fantasy
Where images are not as they seem.
Moonlight plays in the city streets
Forming shadows as we run,
Confronting demons beneath the stars
While dawn in the distance reigns.
Passage waits beyond the gates
Its doors are silent still.
Before them lies with all its will
This sordid, chilling tale.
Cold snakes coiled on soiled paths
They spring in naked truth
Biting hard at every turn
Retelling of violent youth.
Poised to keep their stranglehold
On phantom victims’ crimes.
It’s here we hid the willing sin
We’ve accepted many times.
My days have served to comprehend
These cords of velvet sin,
Whilst night comes as a saving fury
To cleanse my soul within.
As dreams become reality
And thoughts embrace their role,
We resist the curse of others
Playing mind games in our soul.
Within me stays this silent stance
A constant holding firm
Amongst the ever-changing days
And nightly dreams and thirsts.
In times of almost madness
We hear the echoes cry
From these nightly games of memory
When they’ve heard our apt reply.
My past I’ve viewed with broken heart
As I walked the vacant streets
Cleansing myself in the daily rains,
Praying for final release.
It is here I hunt for solitude,
And here I find my soul.
I search my heart within myself
To learn what I have always known.
If rain could rinse me of my sins
And sun reward for pain and loss,
Stars know solitude only in silence
As dreams prove my freedom at last.
Poem first published in Withering Words Magazine, 2026, all rights reserved
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