Tangled Shadows

Image: Wireframe sculpture of a human head and shoulders, casting complex, tangled shadows on a lilac-colored wall Adobe Stock

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Tangled Shadows

Nightmares weave a tangled tapestry
Leaving their quarry stunned,
Bewildered, floating in midnight fog.

Phantom-mares prowl the sleeping mind,
Looting joy, bruising thought.
No playful pups, no laughter’s sweet parade.

Instead, a hulking, snarling beast
Splashes fear in broad, black strokes,
Trapping her in corners thick with dread.

She stands, confounded by the twisted
Specter she’s become—
Whither did the bright-eyed child vanish?

The beast barking up her tree
Is no loyal companion, but a shaggy,
Shadow-eyed ogre—

Glaring into a pit of swirling ink
Where innocence is swallowed,
Where hope is ground to dust.

She has felt the hoofbeats of that nightmare
Drumming on her skull,
Exhaling regret as heavy as rain-soaked wool.

What sin summoned this foul play,
This dross that clings to her spirit?
Can she ever tread firm ground again?

Or will the sucking mud
Forever stain her thoughts?
A mutt howls at her soul’s threshold,

And each dawn she wakes
Haunted by the memory
Of a slick, grinning demon pressing her down.

Is this the end?
A furious surge of darkness
Breaking loose from the vaults of her past?