Victim 2 Poem by Mary Champion

The drifting consciousness of dreams
deepened - descending into darkness.
Fluttering anxiously at the edge of awareness
she sensed the presence of the past.
The portents of danger and doom
echoed and re-echoed.
She willed her legs to run;
to flee the horror.
But, paralysed by sleep,
she remained
rooted obstinately to the spot.
Looming lustfully - larger than they had in real life,
the monsters
that had mastered her innocence,
corrupting it with
inappropriate carnality
came closer to her helplessness.

She opened her mouth to scream
but no sound came.
Deadened by involuntary silence
her dream voice defied her
until the horror wrenched her out of sleep
and her anguished waking cries
clawed at the hearts of her guardians.
Unable to vanquish the nightmares,
they moved to cradle her in the arms of compassion,
but the residue of terror
still monopolised her awareness
and she shrank from their loving embrace,
as if they had been
the monsters of memory
who had colonised her dreams.