I saw visions of tortured souls
ripped apart by machinery
in the bowels of a concrete prison
and reassembled
like patchwork quilts
and I was awestruck with horror
at what I saw
and then I woke up.

Relief gave way,
after a few minutes,
to a deeper dread
because what I had seen was not
something I had been forced to watch,
it was something that came out of me

I had given those feverish images
of inhuman evil and suffering
life.

I spend so much time
gripped by the fear of the world outside
my home, outside
my bed, outside
my body
and now I feel like
nowhere
is safe.

It is three o’clock in the morning.
The streets are quiet.
There are no car alarms.
There are no dogs barking.

And I am too afraid to sleep.