When I Close My Eyes

One night I lay and dreamed of standing

On a shore of rubble, alone.

Across the water, a mushroom cloud bloomed.

If the distance was enough was unknown.

Then a wolf emerged from behind a boulder

And I weighed the odds of a fight,

Until, I realized, they travel in packs,

And I wouldn’t outrun their bite.

Another night, another wolf walked

On hind legs with top hat and vest.

He served as a footman to a sorcerer

Who kept the nearby town oppressed.

He came in a carriage, enthralled a young woman

And sawed off her foot for a spell.

Her stump still bleeding, she tottered away

Passed her neighbors lacking limbs as well.

In a new nightmare, I saw myself taken

By a man who had me watched at all times

By a fellow captive with Stockholm syndrome

And the world thought me an accomplice to his crimes.

The only escape was to get arrested

But when I tried to turn myself in

My captor shot me; as I laid on the ground

There was a hole where my face should have been.

Despite being wary of what I read and watch

And most days are smiles and blue skies

I am shocked by the horrors of my mind that surface

At night, when I close my eyes.