My Greatest Weakness Poem by Elizabeth Shield

It was like a desert filled with sound, and barren of all else
Meaningless, and all the more painful for it
With large carnivorous words that dove and bit and clawed me
Bleeding, but never seeing that I bled, I ran
The endless halls were full of gnawing unknown sayings
I escaped from the things that plagued me
The things I did not understand
The ground rose up and swallowed me whole
I fell

Darkness became my newest fear,
Intensified by the ever present thoughts that whispered
Just beyond the range of interpretation,
Fighting my deadened sight and muffled hearing
My vertigo was ended as the minutes stretched
And I still remained suspended,
Still I could not see
Gravity was my only observation
Was this the next prison?

Reaching my hands out to the sides
I touched the darkness, like smooth ribbon
A tangible slipstream, dark and dangerous
Sliding as I fell
When I pulled it wrapped around my arms
Flying became my greatest joy,
Sight was never needed in this vacuum
This beloved endless hole of matter invisible and unknowable
And the words became the whisper of the night

My cuts were healed by mysterious satin
And at my weakest, my passion was grasped
Laughter fueled from airless, breathless wonder
Stricken by good fortune,
I was in love with the unnamable thing
Which held me up