5am Terrified Poem by Effie Yalena Steyn

Every creak of this house that is not my home
soaks into bone, mildewed, honeyed, broken.
You shift in bed and I hear, your million-miles-away in
dreamland, yet you are so near.
I know what I feel, it takes incredible force
to steel my eyes, see the lights flicker off
no safety ropes this time, in deceit sharpness resonates.
Tick tick tock tock my life, I give to you in sacrifice,
so you will not do those terrible things.
Pounding headache, pull pull pull at any surface, salivate
dry as Antarctica my lips crack mid scream,
giddy on reddening ground. Resurrect.
Take the shutters, exorcise, beat heart beat in these witching hours.