Vulnerability Poem by Temperance Joy

Forgiven but not forgotten
The deed is never undone
Sometimes i wonder if
My battles were ever won.
Is it all just in my head?
But the images seem so real
At night in my nightmares
It's wrinkley flesh i feel.
Not the sheets beneath my skin.
If these visions don't subside
I've no clue what I'd do.
I've got nowhere left to hide.
The past now painful
Creeps up in shadowed wind.
It pulls me to the ground
Surprised and shattered from behind.
I blink and it's all over
sweating now and breathing hard.
A flashback, only thirty seconds.
Just cause i dropped my guard.

(September 2008)