Fear As A Bedfellow (Original)

I watch you let Fear tuck you in
every night, spreading itself thin.
A blanket to cover your goosebumped skin.
Your hair is gripped in its grimy fist.
It sickens me that this foul thing,
reeking of death, should be your lover.

It sings you a lullaby, breaking its
promises by sending you nightmares.
It washes your back in the shower
even as it coats you with paranoia,
poured in your ears as droplets of bile
rolling off its grey, waxy tongue.

You kissed it farewell this morning.
Was its mouth cold? fever-hot? where are its lips?
It inspires in me such disgust, the way
those possessive hands linger on your hips.
My eyes had never been anything but blue
before that cursed sight hit home.

Each morning, you tie one thick end
of its odd body to your naked waist.
A self-sustaining umbilical cord
making its thick, fleshy substance
from your soul, chopped up and served
in a tangy broth of your night sweat.

You have taken to wearing Fear as a cloak -
your shield and tarnished armor all in one -
its supple fingers clasped tightly
around the pulse-point of your throat.
As if barely resisting the sharpest urge
to cut off your panting breath.

I see you shiver; has it slipped its
eager hands under your clothes, caressing
the insides of your thighs? Is it whispering
its anxious mantra into the soft curls
at the nape of your neck? Through it all
you still cannot bear to part with it.

You are obsessed. You let it sit on your chest
and control your skittish heartbeat.
You wash its deceptively small, graceful feet
and let it wriggle into your warm embrace.
Can you not feel its wicked spine cut your skin?
Its fetid breath blows on your face and I choke.

Today, I grasped both of your scarred hands
and dragged you from your would-be death bed
on stubborn heels to the bathroom mirror.
I hold you by the chin, forcing you to see.
You turn to me with terror wrapped around
your bones, fear grinning out from your eyes.

I am too late. Your body is so cold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~AEW~~~~~~~~~~~~
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