Windows Poem by Achim Wollscheid

Tiny nightmares creep inside my head,
They tickle every notion of a dream
Out of my depiction,
But I can’t say that I’m afraid.
All the monsters that lurk between the sheets
And behind the shower curtains;
They all hide, but are they scared of me?
They all shiver, but are they not monsters?

Who wants to weep every night?
I stand and say “Not I, not I”
The blue boy, tense and so observant
Always is the first to be eaten alive.
Who wants to rot away
Until they are eventually nothing?
Still, “Not I, not I” I weep,
Silent terrors entering my mind.

Someone marvelous took everything,
In their hands is my will to care.
I had imagined the best thing in life;
It was this, but I see that it is void.
There are ghosts that haunt the corridors,
That sing sweet sad songs,
But I see them and I stare, I only stare.
They all shiver, but are they not ghosts?

And I look to my reflection;
Every one of me that lines the halls,
And I see such imperfection
That lives, that breathes, that is me,
I find myself, underneath my weight,
Weaken at the knees.
Don’t they see the broken heart that beats
Underneath the fragile skin?

These are windows, I perceive, of lifetimes…
Of lifetimes and moments like these
When I fall and surrender to fears.
“Not I, not I” I weep, but I’m overtaken
By the monsters hidden in my bed;
The nightmares dancing wildly
Through and through my sweat-covered head.
I find windows to hide behind, but am I not still scared?