Nightmare (Prose)

Nightmare

How is it that we once walked through a meadow in the sunshine

And proclaimed our love?

What is that word anyway… “love”?

I remember something about it

It seems it once came near…

In a sunlit flash

I remember the approaching trees

Bright inviting stand

Hiding unknown delights

Small nooks

Little altars

Brightly singing animals.

We stood at the edge of our little sanctuary

And looked searchingly into one another’s eyes.

“Ready?” you asked, laughter and adventure and all brightness.
“Ready,” I replied, smiling
As I strained to hear at the last possible moment,

A strange sizzling sound.

But dismissing it,

I stepped happily in with you.  

Light fled.
Serpents hissed.
Fiery insects materialized from the grainy gloom

And spit fear into our eyes.

Dryads, witches and giggling gnomes

Leered at us from behind poisonous plants.  

But the darkness was the worst;

Enveloping us,

It fully engaged our Being,

Wriggled between the molecules

Of our bodies,

Separating us from Us,

Teasing apart all connection

Blocking out the sun…

Trees became vine-tangled

And a thousand years old

Watching us through tired, old

And apathetic eyes.

You could no longer see me

And the darkness was between our entwined fingers

So you could no longer feel me.

Your breath came in short gasps

And you whispered my name over and over and over

Searching

But not finding

Even though I stood

Terrorized myself

Right next to you.  

In your fright

You ran to the edge of the forest

Taking all the light that was left in the world

With you.

I screamed, cried, begged you no…

But the creature’s laughter drowned my anguish.

At the edge of our happy meadow

At the verge of the grainy black

You stopped and looked back

Hoping, maybe?

But as you did so

You were scooped straight up

Into the night

Away from the light.

I saw you go

My lost Rhiannon.

And now, I am chilled.

And I search for shelter in the darkness.

And I am forever alone.

--Eric Marley

February 2012