Poetry – January 30th, 2023

January 30th, 2023

A fog-like dread rolls in 

sending chips of ice 

down my spine and

leaving slick wet trails behind.

Then came the creaking.

The creeping sound of

walls pressing and bending out of shape,

a low groan of protest that brings 

my eyes up towards the cracks splitting the ceiling.

Cracks that seem to grow everytime I look at them. 

A sickness, a bug crawling down to

 the window.

The window, where that same groan had drawn

my eye.

Sheer curtains 

like gauze covering

oozing darkness behind

stiff blinds. 

The shutters of my collapsing fortress.

I swallow thickly,

Breath caught

Heart stopped

as I look into the darkness.

Like peering over a cliff’s edge 

into stormy seas.

What I see,

threatens me.

A man, 

a man opening the window

to my 2nd floor apartment.

Without warning,

without a call or hello

inviting and dragging himself in from

the night to end it all.

A string of stuttering pleas fall from my lips.