knife under my pillow
For Chloe Rose Violet’s October Challenge
That’s my window,
That’s my lamp,
That’s my mirror,
That’s my art.
.
Eye spy for one
avoids fear that creeps
into my mind
as I lay down to sleep
.
Underneath my pillow
That’s my knife.
Protection for
my mortal life
✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨
This was written after reading Chloe’s brilliant writing prompts for October list. “Knife Under My Pillow” immediately stood out to me. Throwing my mind back to the summer of 2021 after I came face to face with a man attempting to break into my house. I was alone. I was terrified. He kept coming towards me and I began shouting loudly for the neighbours. Thankfully this was enough to have him run away and jump back over the wall in my garden.
That’s all tht happened but it destroyed my already fragile sense of perceived safety. Every creak and noise in the house had me on edge. I didn’t sleep well for months. I started having panic attacks again. My health rapidly declined. I slept with a knife under my pillow for a long time. Something I forgot about completely until I saw this prompt.
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Comments (8)
So sorry to hear you experienced that, and glad you stood your ground and shouted. I'm also glad that you wrote this powerful piece about it.
Omgggg, I'm so sorry this happened to you! 🥺 Sending you lots of love and hugs ❤️ I had a similar experience during my final year in uni. That night, I went to bed early because I was only running on 2 to 3 hours of sleep each for the past few days. So you can imagine, I slept like a corpse, lol! Then I was suddenly woken up to someone opening my room door. I live with my parents so I thought it was one of them and I said "What?". It was so dark so I couldn't see the person's face. They slowly closed my door. I was pissed because my sleep was interrupted. I groggily complained "Why did you wake me up?" And suddenly my room door burst open, he grabbed my pencil box and purse from my table and ran away. It took me a second to process things. I started shouting at him to stop him from getting away. That woke my parents up but he got away by then. I couldn't sleep for weeks after that because each time I close my eyes, I see him opening my door. But to make sure I slept, my dad stayed awake the whole night watching TV for all those weeks 🥺
Holy this was amazing! I'm so sorry you went through that Kayleigh 😔 I loved this piece of poetry and the backstory behind it is just crazy! I'm glad my prompts inspired this piece. I'm so sorry that happened to you.
Crap! Ruth has CPTSD so I found this v relatable from her point of view! Sorry you've had that experience and glad you are working through it! Stunning and stirring writing as always!
Christ, Kayleigh, what a strong piece of poetry! And the background behind it, my god. I’m so sorry you went through that. Panic attacks are horrible, I’ve got lots of experience there, but I can only imagine the kind that come from that kind of scare.
This is such a well written poem but tragic that you had to go through that fear and danger
Great! Very well written!
Omg, 😱 the back story 🥹📝✌️❤️🩹Thankfully you are Great❗