Night Terror

My eyes open,

My eyes open, and yet I see the pitch darkness

of a cold unknown room,

and unknown sheets

and unknown sheets holding in my curiosity.

I look around as my eyes

I look around as my eyes adjust

and I feel the rust of an old hospital bed,

as a dimly lit candle flickers in the night,

bringing light to an unknown atrocity.

The straps are stopping me

and I can’t contain the fear.

I don’t know what is happening

I don’t know what is happening and how I got here.

As another woman lays in bed across the room.

She’s screeching and shouting muddled words of impending doom.

The wind whips so harshly in the night, the room shakes.

As I shake in these leather straps and do whatever it takes.

To hold freedom as my fate,

hearing the screams of impending doom.

Until I see a face outside of the door

Until I see a face outside of the door peeking in my room.

So I had to assume,

this was all due to the scratches on the wall,

the empty pill bottle and booze that led me to a window fall.

As the curious man opens the door

As the curious man opens the door and calms the screaming patient down.

As she only calms to his soft voice repeating to her, “Relax and smile, don’t frown.”

As this terror astounds

As this terror astounds and surpasses

what a restraint and psychiatric hold feels like,

waking up to this fright.

Until the doctor walks over to sedate me,

and makes me close my eyes.

To open wide

to see my room and the sunlight.

Thank you