Remembering childhood,
While lying next to the woman who haunts my dreams.
Anxiety pervades this otherwise beautiful moment.
Though she sleeps,
My childhood habits return.
I rub her shirt between two fingers.
I remember once, as a child.
The anxiety pierced
as my nightmare plagued mother cried, ‘Help’
I remember I took her drowsy hand,
And pretended to run in that sickly bed.
As if my chubby, kicking legs could save her from her demons.
As this beauty squirms in my arm,
I know I won’t run with her,
But stand for her.
Dcid Corvid 