Night Falls

Night    falls.

The world   slows.

 

My heart does not slow.

It pounds relentlessly,

As if to pound a way out of the four walls

Of the small room,

Well lit room,

Comfortable room,

That is my self-created bastion against the darkness.

 

This world is too small.

Boundaried by old carpet

And soft sofas

And a lifetime’s accretion of knickknacks and trinkets.

They press on me like rocks at a witch trial.

A self-built fortress

Become a self-imposed prison

With self-forged chains.

 

Night falls.

Darkness settles

And I scurry back to my safe cell.

Safe and bright.

Night falls.

Trees whisper in the wind.

Spindly branches reach for me.

Uncanny sounds surround me.

The world is too big.

I lose myself.

 

Night falls

Like a soft blanket

Settling across my shoulders.

Soft leaves brush my skin

And crickets and frogs sing to me.

Clouds chase the moon.

I breathe in

Deeply

Deeply

And break the chains

And the walls.

I breathe out

Slowly

Slowly

And fill the empty sky with me.

I fill the me-shaped hole is this world.

 

Rest comes

As

Night falls.