I don’t know when I first saw it,
This stranger buried in my mind.
I dig deep down in the pit,
Raking, trying to find
Some signal or sign,
A recognition of some kind.
But the harder I stare,
The more they vanish into air.
My eyes strain and ache,
As they trace each familiar line.
But they cannot see him whilst awake.
Each glimpse is short, sharp, fine,
A stabbing pain that grows,
I find myself pulled deeper in throes
Of dreaded eager desire.
Deadly and consuming, slow to expire.
They are glimpsed in partiality,
In that grey space that lies betwixt.
That moment of murky unreality,
Where waking and sleep are intermixed.
A haunting visage of the unknown,
So familiar yet so foreign,
Some half-forgotten part I call my own.
This alien entity that faces out,
Unescapable shadow of my form.
In these episodes, these bouts,
My own shape seems to transform.
If I could get out of my physical bonds
Move outside, get beyond,
Perhaps I could properly see,
The face that stares back at me.
May 4
May 4, 2026 at 7:41 AM UTC
I don’t know when I first saw it,
This stranger buried in my mind.
I dig deep down in the pit,
Raking, trying to find
Some signal or sign,
A recognition of some kind.
But the harder I stare,
The more they vanish into air.
My eyes strain and ache,
As they trace each familiar line.
But they cannot see him whilst awake.
Each glimpse is short, sharp, fine,
A stabbing pain that grows,
I find myself pulled deeper in throes
Of dreaded eager desire.
Deadly and consuming, slow to expire.
They are glimpsed in partiality,
In that grey space that lies betwixt.
That moment of murky unreality,
Where waking and sleep are intermixed.
A haunting visage of the unknown,
So familiar yet so foreign,
Some half-forgotten part I call my own.
This alien entity that faces out,
Unescapable shadow of my form.
In these episodes, these bouts,
My own shape seems to transform.
If I could get out of my physical bonds
Move outside, get beyond,
Perhaps I could properly see,
The face that stares back at me.