Silence kills me
Noise disturbs me
Music completes me

I sit in my room alone
Not a whisper to be heard
The demons in the back of my head
try to cling to my stray thoughts
So they can be lifted from the
depths of my subconscious
The demons who criticize me
and tease me
and make fun of me
They almost make it

Suddenly, a
*BANG*
I twitch and my heart skips
I look around to see a box
on the floor,
on its side
I must’ve put it too close
to the edge of the table
My heart calms a little
but my demons had vaulted
to the forefront of my brain
Because the box had disturbed
my train of thought

I switched on my music before a voice
could even utter a word
The soft melodies washed over me
effectively silencing my demons
The bass beat them back,
sending them back to their depths
The music had shut them out
I can hear them curse at me—from a distance—
for sending them back
But the soft undertones and lilting overtones of the songs
keep me from dwelling on them

My mind is at ease, and my demons
have gone to bed
Relief washes over me
as I stand, closing my laptop
I leave my room, bumping into my friend
She asks if I’d want to
“Ya’know, go for lunch?”
With my demons asleep
I nod, and smile
And say yes
Keeping them locked up
for another day.