The Darkness Follows Poem by Nate Ritchie

A creeping darkness follows me
Everywhere I go.
It is an evil not even I can see,
Though it pursues me so.

There was a time when it was not there;
A time when I could be fully at ease,
When I could live my life without a care,
And bask in the warm summer breeze.

That time has passed.
I can never be at peace.
In a toxic miasma, the dark has amassed.
There is no help - not from police.

It gets closer by the day,
Hungry for me; mind, body, and soul.
I wish it would go away.
Its presence has taken its toll.

I do not know why it is here,
Or from where it came.
There is no escape, I fear.
I will never live the same.

I can feel it just at my back
As of late.
It craves my being like a snack.
To be food… is that my fate?

Sometimes I sense a ghoul
Reaching for my shoulder.
I know I sound like a fool,
But the thought makes my body grow colder.

Surely it is all in my head;
My damaged, delusional brain.
Thinking this brings no less dread;
No less pain.

Sometimes, I get the urge to run,
But running would make no difference.
Its progress cannot be undone.
From my suffering - there is no deliverance.