Dark Side Poem by Mary Champion

THE DARK SIDE
27/6/2021

What happened in this room that echoes still?
What terror is it makes my blood run cold?
What is this atmosphere of pending doom
that I absorbed on walking through the door?
There's evil lurking here I can't control
and something grips me when I try to leave.

I try to turn around, prepare to leave,
but a force, not of this world, restrains me still.
Some fiendish faculty has gained control,
my limbs have been infused with deathly cold.
I do not have the strength to reach the door
and yet I can't surrender to my doom.

I hear a phantom bell that tolls my doom,
calling on my soul to take its leave.
Now I see only stone, where stood a door
and how these cruel shackles bind me still.
No man has surely known such grievous cold,
yet even now, I struggle for control.

There's panic in my heart I can't control,
I fail to steer my thoughts away from doom.
I hunger for surrender to this cold.
I cannot fight this evil, make it leave.
Time has been suspended, clocks stand still.
Is that but a mirage, or a door?

I pray, unheard, 'God, guide me to the door.
Why can't your love and mercy win control? '
But no divine assistance comes and still
I sense the growing imminence of doom.
Despairing counsel urges me to leave -
no grave could be as bitter as this cold.

As my blood runs cold I look towards the door
'You are free to leave if you yield control.
But your soul is doomed I'm your master still.'