My hands fumble to find the switch A change from light to dark To drown my trembling imperfections out in a numbing abyss A blinding black blur that calls the demons out from under the bed skirt Where they’ve been playing with dust and fraying my trust and squeezing my brain and pressing my pain And laughing Oh how they laugh at me With their pointy teeth slapping the air that denies my breath I beg them to leave Let me sleep! I say. But they tickle my ear with their fiery tongues And jump like a bounce house on top of my lungs My body keels over and I pull my chest close Prepare to deflect the next daunting dose My hands clutch crush and my knuckles weep white A basket of bones by my skin’s sorry sight That hangs like a wet carpet outside to dry Old and forgotten by a golden goodbye But the sun forgot how to simmer and shine And the air carries a vapor heavy with signs That point down to the ground but I know there is more They call me to a place that is far past the floor Yes darkness drums dream demons for in it all I see Is my soul’s own inferno forever beckoning me