To Slumber….

To Slumber

Sweet sleep, my escape route
into a fantasy world of real and unreal,
Shady thoughts woven with perceptions and dreams,
Fear and despair often meet here.

Sometimes you creep up on me unawares
spreading your potent dust thickly on my unwilling eyelids.
You lead me helpless into your web of darkness.

Often you evade me escaping, as I yearn for you,
just to unleash myself in your soothing arms.
I try to summon you and pretend you are there
Yet the more I try the farther away you go.

Other times when I allow myself to wallow in your power,
you abuse and hurt, not letting me forget my problems, instead
They are enlarged and horrific, ghoulish
and lewd and I throw you off with deafening screams,
making you vanish

Many times you sentence me to live out terror and certain death,
then release me at the ultimate moment
to lie sweating with relief that your evil deed was pretence.

Yet without you I cannot function.
I must remain a slave to your power until
My power runs out…….

Pamela Murray