TORTURE

They call me a night owl
For the late hours I keep
They can’t imagine the horrors
Eating my soul during sleep.

Faces of misery
Bodies grotesquely burned
My role in their demise
They surly have learned

I stand indicted
Each night in their court
No defense to protect me
No citadel or fort

So I wait for the wee hour
Until my body gives way
To that nightmarish hell
Broken by the next day

Unlike the darkness in Morpheus’ grasp
With daylight, sanity returns
Awake I function again
No one knows how the fear still burns

©Copyright April 15, 2008 by Fred B. Baker II