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The Other Me

 

I sense you are there again

Behind me

Lurking, loitering

Deathly quiet

Agonisingly quiet

 

Fear grips

It smothers me

My body is encased

My thoughts are no longer my own

You are seizing control

Your strength is drowning all I have

 

As you fall inside me

My eyes become yours

Isolating objects to use

To torment or hurt

Discomfort beyond the imaginable

Heartbreak

 

That red pair of stockings draped innocently over the chair

That cable waiting patiently to bring back life

That used bag discarded without care on the floor

All of them perfect weapons you say

 

That voice that voice

So resolute, so unrelenting

Depicting a scene so extreme if left

Pick up, tidy away

Put them out of sight

Before he finds them

 

Need I act?

Must I clear away?

Will they fall victim to such cruelty?

Can’t think can’t think

Fear has paralyzed me

 

To act would calm but not solve

To leave them would deliver such intolerable angst

But then space

Space to breathe

Space to think

Space to move on

Space to be free

Space to live

 

At least for a moment

​

Background: Being an anxious person is like being stalked by a terrifying individual, who is telling you what to do, and the terrible harm that will come if you don't. 

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