Rescue me

from victim’s guilt, memories spilt

that reside in a cocoon of shame demanding to be fed.

They thunder like giants in my mind-field,

each step carrying the grim vibrations of shadowy moments.

And I am in a holding pattern of grief.

Free me

from my pilgrimage to dark pain

that suffocates me with its splintered shards diamond hard

and infects me with embedded fangs of  psychic poison.

Without boundaries or release. these unholy memories

collect in stagnant pools of tainted droplets.

Protect me

from the brute force that stripped me

of unguarded moments and undamaged beliefs

that still disturb and distort the mirrored passages of time.

I try and resist the drumbeat of tribal chants that call me back

but my defenses are anemic; I cannot slip the leash of phantom wardens.

Spare me

from the memory pyre  and the dense jungle ripe with ghosts

and unwanted hosts that held my world.

I sleep with one eye open.  The forbidden snakes

scoop out the darkness, and the rattlers of this bagged inferno

throb like veins and reawaken  terror.

Give me

the antidote for brittle edges and a pit of need

that harden the word and world of survivors.

Seal them up with the wax of amnesia

never to be opened or disturbed again.