Facing the Storm

The blackness consumes me

Thick sludge running through my veins

Terror shrouds like a blanket

Stealing my breath

The sea of my feelings pounds me in waves

The tide of my soul swallows me whole

Feeling perpetually lost, I walk the beach of my life on dark nights

The stars tell me stories I will never hope to live

My feet sink into sand that threatens to take me

I’m trapped here again

The mist from the troubled surf cuts like knives

The storm rages inside and out

I wander aimlessly in darkness

Looking for the unknown, but knowing I’ll never find it

My heart aches for something it cannot grasp

Beating in my chest to a drummer called purpose who yet remains unseen

My body threatens to crumble into pieces so small

they can be carried away by gales around me

A sick laughter escapes my throat

As tears fall to join the ocean of my despair

Swirling around me in black pools

Heaviness pushes down on me with a force so strong it holds me in place

Frozen to a world that sits on my shoulders

Mocking my pain

I shake and I stumble

As thunder rumbles

Lightning exposes the shadows and shows that I’m not alone

Faces stare at me out of the darkness

The same terror reflects off their eyes

Our fear replaced by knowing smiles we embrace

Facing the storm together