Sleep sneaks up on her
like shadow's tendrils curling across the walls
Stretch and shrink as she recoils back into her shell
Defenses stripped clean
Huddled against a corner with mere blankets
For protection
barely suffice

Ghosts looming over
Wraiths of her former self
Superimposed against ebony horizons
Tainted a sickly shade of sulfur
A warning sign
Of worse unlived nightmares to come

Cracked blinds and tattered curtains stripped of joy
Windows translucent with fear
Eyes peer out glinting icicles
glass fragments refracting
Slivers of the last gleams of light

Bloodstones shattered ruby
Silhouettes of what she once had
Now swallowed by the knife of memory leaving
Decayed flesh gravid with
Unwanted tissue
And hauntings of nightmares past

Clouds of darkness enshroud
Creatures entombed in flesh
Craving freedom
And warm milk