I dare not dance.
I dare not laugh.

And whenever I am lost
I know I have a home
there in the shadows.

The absence
of all that is good
embraces me.

The hollow
left by the abandonment of peace
is a companion
ready to welcome my presence.

There - in the corners
of long-forgotten cobwebs
is the place I return to
time
and
time
again
to be enveloped
when hope
rejects my glittering gaze.

I have a place always
among the ruins
of short-circuited desires.

I make my bed
with the monsters children run from.

I belong in the nothing.