Picking At Scabs

Listen to poem:
A musky, burnt haze sears slowly into my nostrils.  
The twilight hour pulses steadily, bathing stark walls in an eerie gloom.  
Too awake to drift to sleep, yet too tired to drag my bones off this sinking mattress.  
Thoughts cyclone like a tsunami within a withdrawn mind,  
picking at scabs; the half-life of my darkness pools in red droplets.  
Licking the wounds, the taste of metallic and melancholy blends.  
Loneliness wraps its arms around my dejected shoulders like a winding sheet.  
A howling wind rattles the paper-thin glass making up my windows,  
as I ponder how I became the living dead.  
Traumas poisoned my sanity,  
slowly paranoia replaced reason,  
delusions became my nightly bedfellow,  
whispering sweet unpleasantries into tainted ears,  
leaving hallucinatory trinkets in my repeating nightmares.  
The world is shrinking, withering,  
yet as I am becoming paralyzed by fear, I am unequipped to stop it.  
Like a freight train derailed,  
bellowing at full speed towards the inevitable,  
I too am racing at the speed of light towards oblivion.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2025



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Date: 6/27/2025 2:06:00 AM
Your voice deserves a diamond trophy grumpy! Keep doin spoken words! Congrats! Sending you light!
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Sara Jama
Date: 6/27/2025 5:32:00 AM
Thank you Ink.
Date: 6/20/2025 9:24:00 PM
what a pleasant voice ~ both eerie and charming ~
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Sara Jama
Date: 6/26/2025 8:53:00 AM
Thank you so much.
Date: 6/19/2025 8:33:00 AM
A very pleasant voice with just the right intonation for this poem... which btw, is excellent! Congratulations! Xo
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Sara Jama
Date: 6/19/2025 8:56:00 AM
Thank you for the kind words.
Date: 6/19/2025 6:17:00 AM
Oh so powerful voice. Congratulations on your win dear poet. Cheers!!!
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Sara Jama
Date: 6/19/2025 8:56:00 AM
Thank you so much.
Date: 6/18/2025 4:44:00 PM
Sara congrats on your win!
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Sara Jama
Date: 6/19/2025 8:56:00 AM
Thank you very much.
Date: 6/18/2025 3:51:00 PM
I could listen to your soft, soothing voice for hours. In fact I may play this when I'm having trouble falling asleep, dark message notwithstanding. Congrats on placement
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Sara Jama
Date: 6/19/2025 8:56:00 AM
Thank you for the kind words and placing me in your contest.
Date: 4/27/2025 7:46:00 AM
Sara, I could read this a thousand times and still not gain from it the emotions you exposed when hearing you read it. Your voice lives each tragic line.
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Sara Jama
Date: 5/18/2025 4:15:00 PM
Thank you very much.
Date: 4/21/2025 9:03:00 AM
Awesome! This is powerful!
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Sara Jama
Date: 4/21/2025 9:14:00 AM
Thank you very much.
Date: 4/20/2025 8:15:00 AM
Brilliant poem, amazing reading, congratulations
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Sara Jama
Date: 6/19/2025 8:55:00 AM
Thank you so much.
Date: 4/20/2025 6:43:00 AM
"Thoughts cyclone like a tsunami within a withdrawn mind" - Indeed, very powerfully written. Congratulations!
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Sara Jama
Date: 5/18/2025 4:15:00 PM
Thank you so much.
Date: 4/20/2025 3:47:00 AM
gifted write. Congratulations on your win dear poet. Cheers!!!
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Sara Jama
Date: 5/18/2025 4:14:00 PM
Thank you so much.
Date: 4/19/2025 12:12:00 PM
Sara, heartiest congratulations on your win in my contest with this masterfully crafted poem. I loved it. Great imagery and diction!
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Sara Jama
Date: 4/19/2025 12:26:00 PM
Thank you for placing me. And the kind words.
Date: 4/9/2025 7:20:00 AM
Wow grumpy! Youv nailed it not with just the reading of the poem but also with how youve depicted psychosis and what it does and how it feels in such a detailed manner , brilliant metaphors and imagery and flow of your lines in this poem is seamless! I always tell you this that you should share your spoken words as you do them so wholeheartedly. And you have read more than 100s of poets on insta writing community! Maybe you should do readings for soupers? Haha! Would be so nice! FAVE. BOL!!
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Sara Jama
Date: 4/19/2025 12:25:00 PM
Thank you Ink.
Date: 4/8/2025 4:43:00 PM
wow, you got such great terrorizing emotion out of that topic. Wish I could do one like that!! I'd probably just talk about how I pick at my scabs!! I bet this scores high!
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Sara Jama
Date: 4/8/2025 5:47:00 PM
Thank you so much for your kind words. I bet you will write an amazing poem on the title you pick. I can't wait to read it.
Date: 4/8/2025 12:42:00 PM
I could relate to this . Paranoia , delusions , and sleeplessness . Sighs . Loved reading it .
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Sara Jama
Date: 4/8/2025 12:45:00 PM
I'm so sorry you can relate to this. Thank you for reading my poem. I appreciate your support.
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