Nightmare

A nebulous night approaches, encroaches an exhausted mind,

Harried horse birthing a vision into sleep after lullaby,

In suspense, suspended heavy fog, roots tangled a haunting bind.

Hell bent, the bell sent shrieking screams awry around the town, call cry.

Grandmother’s sleep trapped in an iron tower that pierces the sky:

Black like Bucephalus, untamable, only the strongest could reign,

To scale these stairs would take generations to reach, to breach, so high.

There were whispers heard, a myth people were afraid to name, to deign.

Entering with your sanity about you, escaping insane,

Who’s to look in your mind, say your hallucinations aren’t real,

It pains me to hear your unconscious replay of past conscious bane.

Her perception became reality, a hand to play, to deal.

What have you seen in daylight hours that has never had chance to heal?

Regrets from commissions or omissions? Responsibility,

For moments that continue to punctuate deep sleep, all surreal.

Framing your innermost fear into sedated reality.

Is this my last Herculean task, a test of ability?

Torn about heaving you out of corrupted dreams, bringing you home,

I worry that helping will only weaken your resolve, you see

A caterpillar must emerge from cocoon transformed, on its own.

A butterfly’s wings gain strength by breaking shell, start of a new tome,

I wanted to get her but some things we may not do together,

Eventually we must all stand alone in order to reach throne.

My absence didn’t make sense to her, but it was for the better.

Realize that you’re not alone now; I’m with you through the weather,

Remember that if I tried to save you from the monsters, the pain,

I would only achieve in leaving you crippled, to life a debtor.

Wings no longer able, you would have to take on the path with cane.

The night is old, dawn approaching, a struggle battled not in vain,

Mother mare gallops into the recesses of her forest to rest,

Day becomes the eye of the storm, the worst at bay, a hurricane.

Living two lives, one in bed, only option left – to give her best.