Unable to sleep.
Every sound an enemy,
each stirring an intruder.
Even my own breathing
is frisked
before being allowed out.
I suffer during darkness
a thousand bludgeonings,
see blood everywhere.
How my poor heart
dreads the night
shift. I wear
a smear of sweat
like a moist plastercast.
Adrift in a monstered sea.
Those actors who scare so well
in your nightmares
have all practised first on me.