Darkness and Shadows

            Darkness surrounds me as the memories swirl about. They look like black angels of death trying to drag me off with them.

            I fight as they grab onto me with their powerful, ice-cold hands. Their hold is like steel, unrelenting, strong.

            All that I can see is darkness, all I can feel is pain. They swirl at a break-neck pace as they draw me in.

            Hands from the past reach up and grab hold of me, yanking me from the here and now. No matter how I struggle, they still come.

            Words from the past float around as if the words were written in the air. They try to consume me, taking over my hearing.

            As the memories grow, they fill in all around me. They are all that I can see, all that I can feel.

            The blackness forms images of the past, images of truths long since ignored and forgotten.

            My whole body is filled with this blackness. I feel the touches of ages past, tastes of years gone by.

            All the blackness smells of alcohol, cheap red wine. Red wine mixed with blood. Red wine mixed with blood and semen.

            To me this black is the same as the red that was shed from me. They are one in the same, as they both come from the shadows.

            Now they are so much more real than the shadows they once were. The vague feeling of something being wrong is replaced with the complete darkness of the truth.

            No matter which way I turn, the darkness is still there. I can’t get away from it as it tears away at my truth.

by Mindy Hawk, All Rights Reserved