Within the jungle of my consciousness,

Where shadows dance and the shades hiss,

I gaze into the mirrors of my mind’s abyss,

The haunted reflections of memories meant to last,

Are but fleeting moments that leave tracks as the clock ticks past,

Backward-looking floating wreckage of a life already elapsed,

Yet these mirrors don’t reflect, they take over and invade,

Using the whispers of my past as specters of a deathly dull serenade,

Like watching grass grow, I’ll sit here forever in wait,

With the weight of my scars a debt left unpaid,

Upon the first light I stand before the shimmering surfaces,

To confront a horrifying truth, a riddle of false appearances,

The strangers standing in the mirror, my memory a recurring disappearance,

In the wake of all trauma and loss,

The day in day out passage of time, a life that’s lost,

Drifting in a sea of forgotten identities that continue to mock,

With the sunrise come my terrifying existence,

The gnawing fear of everyday forgetfulness,

I look in the mirror and all I see is emptiness,

Faces stares back but who they are eludes me,

I’m sinking and drowning in and endless sea,

Of inhuman eidolons, that grab me and drag me to the deep,

Their suffocating me I can barely breathe,

Each reflection is a demon stalking my memories,

Draining my life until I’m all out of energy,

Every misplaced face staring back at me,

Messing with my sanity, tearing me apart piece by piece,

I know they’re all me but all I see are strangers,

As the light continues to fade my blood chills to danger,

Darkness surrounds me a friend and a traitor,

Keeping me locked up in this damn chamber,

I try to escape by my efforts vanish like vapor,

Floating in the abyss, slowly sinking deeper,

I’m the eye of the sleeper, the neither in the either,

The choke in the breather, the hell in the ether,

The eyes of a thousand strangers looking back,

I start to crack, the windows of my soul are caliginous,

Limitless distances I crawl, from wall to wall hypnotic and poisonous,

That tell me what to do yet they never listen,

I live a life of fiction, where my identity has been hidden,

This life that God has given is an invisible prison,

Just a cell to wait in with this life God made and handed over to Satan,

I awaken in fright forsaken, shaken in this broken foundation,

Just distorted mutations, a blank inside the quotations,

A murdered of ravens, a sound of hell from the heavens,

Spurious misconceptions, obscure suggestions,

Dementia’s possessions, begs to question,

Who am I, I can’t remember anything in this life condemned by my Creator,

Turning Cellar Door into a door in the cellar,

Is open for all to enter and fester on my center,

Stealing my tears and savoring my nectar,

From Heavens fall right into the arms of,

All the demon’s I’ve ever encountered,

Can’t remember a thing, I can’t even remember to remember,

Will I remember tomorrow or will this last forever?

I want to just quit lay down and surrender,

The rain is coming down, I am not alone,

I see the lightening yet it doesn’t make a sound,

For I am the face of countless others,

I’m both lost and found, in the silence of the thunder,

I look at my life and my spirit shudders,

I hang on to the hope that’s stuck in my throat,

From the grip on the end of this rope,

My mind is on fire it might explode,

Thoughts and memories diminish like they’re in escape mode,

Waiting on spring only to get one more hate snow,

One minute it’s hot the next it’s cold,

I never know anything except for what I’m told,

This abyss has become my home, theirs a soul in my hole,

I’m an actorless actor playing the leading role,

Everywhere I go I’m lost in my own show,

Every time I open my eyes I have to say Hello?

The windows to my soul are hollow I’m a blank stare,

Everything I know is smoke in the air,

A caducous mind, a decoy meant to ensnare,

I wither and decay, lost in despair,

I am both here and there, when I put 2 and 2 together, beware,

Every reflection I see must be a mask I wear,

With this beclouded mind there’s shards of glass everywhere,

Leaving me discombobulated I need a way to make things clear,

I know there’s no way out of here but,

I can’t keep living a life of fear,

It’s completely unfair, sleeping peacefully unaware,

Only to wake up everyday to this endless nightmare,

I need to put this picture together, a way to make it real,

I might die if I don’t find way out out this ordeal,

Pedal to the metal but I’m asleep behind the wheel,

I need someone to talk to, to understand how I feel,

If fate is destiny how do I break through the seal,

Get out of this abyss I created that began as an ideal,

As more memories are locked up tightly concealed,

A weight I can’t bare, fractures beyond repair,

I’ll keep on fighting to this I swear,

I’m keep playing solitaire, till I understand my state of affairs,

Get out of the abyss and elucidate this puzzle upstairs,

I’ll keep coming until I have confronted all my fears and,

Learn to love myself, every piece that’s scattered everywhere,

I’m tired of living in 2 places at once, somewhere and nowhere,

It makes my skin crawl, I’m well versed even though I’m unversed and unprepared,

I’ll still love all of me, becoming au fait through meditation and prayer,

As I see through these flights of imagination, I become debonair,

Like I said I won’t stop until I take the S out of (s)care and,

In the silence of my yell, to all my fears and despairs,

I’ll sit back and wave as I bid you farewell!

—TerrySalmon—