Dear Fear
Dear Fear,
I see You there-
grinning up at me maliciously
black eyes glinting malevolently.
Black like midnight,
draping over your wispy body
welling fog barely fits under a cloak.
Yellowing, pointed teeth
quivering
waiting to tear,
puncture,
Maim.
A flash of scarlet.
Floating freely between various forms-
a white, misty fog in the darkness,
a boggart in the wizarding world
imitating, mocking,
shrieking laughter.
A shrill scream in the dark,
piercing shadows
the last emaciated breath of a pale figure
oblivion, darkness, infinity, then-
Nothing.
Of all your
Roots
clinging to arid soil
jutting rocks
---------
uncertainty, ignorance-
Reign far above all else.
Malformation, disease
gentle creeping of cancerous bodies
like hornets traveling in a flock,
but with a tick’s numbing bite.
You slink up to a person unaware
infesting, infecting, sickening
You are cancer’s best friend,
and slow contributor to death.
You crawl in the halls
where death lurks.
Families congregate,
last moments shared and remembered
You take from them the last living happiness.
Fear,
You are within and without.
Purell
gel, cool on my hands
Stinging-
purifying sensation of sickness.
You are ivy
a small sprig of doubt left unguarded
growing slowly at first, then with startling rapidity,
crawling through a dark forest
slowly creeping over a tree until it has disappeared from view.
Are You... me?
Am I….afraid?
You skulk through the chambers of my heart
gleaming red and gruesome pink
through aortas, ventricles
pumped through my arteries,
overtaking my body
returned through greenish blue veins
recycling.
From my heart to my lungs
great rasping shudders
issuing from the sinewy depths
through my own mouth-
though my breath should not belong to You.
Fear,
I am not You
I am not a tree for You to shroud
with your ivy.
My heart thuds
my hands shake,
but I rise.
Your cloak is flung off,
your eyes lose their gleam,
my hands steady
my breathing slows
Soul reassured.
Your body plummets
to infinity
Wispy arms and legs unfurl like smoke
down a tapering tunnel of darkness
getting smaller and smaller,
never quite gone.
Fear-
you are not welcome here.
Love, Hope, Confidence, Certainty
will tear your flesh from those old, grey bones
and that smile will never return to your lips.
Farewell, Fear
No longer yours,
Rose Melville.