Smiling Dark

 

Night pins me to the mattress like a specimen

a weight on my chest that has no name

the room is the same, yet everything tilts wrong

I scream inside a throat that forgot how to open

Shadows peel from the corners, tall and patient

they wear my face but stretched, hungry, wrong

fingers of air crawl across my skin like spiders

I bargain with a god who is busy elsewhere

Time stretches thin as old film, snapping and looping

hours collapse into one endless inhale

the ceiling lowers, inch by inch, to kiss my eyes

I am the fossil being made in real time

Then the spell cracks, a small merciful pop

my body floods back into itself, heavy and mine

I lie gasping, soaked, staring at the harmless dark

knowing tomorrow night it will come again, smiling

Written by: Samyojana Pantha