True Story: Echo of Insanity

Come the dark, come sleep: music box tunes commence as commanded by Father Time to prance tauntingly in years gone by and the daunting hours inevitably to come. Melodies visit long buried memories of faded visions; adoring their distorted collection in the horror house of a once brilliant mind. “Hush now”, they say. “You know there is no other way”. The maniacal visage of unspoken abominations again burrows into a skull weary of nocturnal screeches: A mother rips sight from her toddler as punishment for innocent trust. A stranger’s mutilation for the torture of a bound, evolving evil. Children’s demise by poisoned whip wielded by a shadow bearing Cheshire grin. The screams of a woman, naked and lost, caught in thorns to tear flesh from bone… 17 000 nightmares born into an infant, now grown. Come the dawn, come the wake: … ”No! It’s daylight, they cannot be here! Don’t take sanity, fragile and stressed!” No answers, no mercy as reality gets bombarded, and friends’ faces once a comfort rearrange into monstrous mirages. Cackle laughter I hear nearby and realize it’s escaped my own throat. I plead to the breeze that I may still be asleep… Its only reply a familiar, mocking rhyme: “Tik-tok, tik-tok. Time’s up on your clock. Can't you hear the drum? Don’t run, only succumb.” Despairing what is to come Despite warnings from my conscious mind I look at my wrist. Hair raises, desperate words unspoken. The watch I've held all my life is broken. 03 October 2016 Scare Me Good Poetry Contest