Coming Down To Detox Poem by Chip Schaller

My reverie door to a new life in a new town
Slammed shut with the hell of coming down
My numbed escape of visions and dreams
was changing to terrified sobbing screams

The weight of the panic was compressing the air
It pulled on the noose, tightened the snare
I felt weak and drowning, trapped at sea
With obsessive thoughts of what could or should be

Suddenly terrified of the future to come
with the hortator beating on the funeral drum
I was pounding and scratching in futility
on the locked door of redemption, no handle, no key

With trembling lip and tremored hands
Nowhere to run, I could not take a stand
Cornered and lonely in this crowded room
The creaking door slowly closed the tomb

Stripped and thrown naked on a lighted stage
I spun in circles in a hamster cage
Their eyes judged me and jabbed with a spear
There was no place to hide from fear of the fear

I swallowed blame for pain that was caused
Choked on shame for lives that were paused
My eyes stained from tears of failure and fault
When the endless anxiety started the assault

I tasted the bitter hot bile of despair
Bound and gagged with no wing and no prayer
I was draped in a fear-soaked wretched gown
With all the feels of coming down

Copyright © 2018 by Chip Schaller
All rights reserved