Dark

Another poem I wrote back in high school. One of my longer ones, and the only one I had the guts to show my English teacher for feedback:

The darkness scares me
All mysterious and black
It gets under my skin
It holds me back

You can't see what's out there
You can't turn your back
All you can do
Is wait to be attacked

You can run away
You can try to hide
But the fact remains
Your fear won't subside

Will no one help me?
I'm here all alone
The cold night breeze
Chills me to the bone

I see a shadow
I look all around
My feet seem glued
To the hard ground

I see the shadow move
That's all it takes
My feet are unglued
As I realize the stakes

My life is in danger
That's plain to see
But what have I done?
Why is he chasing me?

My heart is pounding in my chest
As I'm running, a pain in my hip
My legs give out from their laborious work
Oh no! I fall, I trip!

As I lay there in pain
Sprawled on the sidewalk
I hear footsteps, mumbling
I hear someone talk

My heart is pounding faster still
It seems I was running up a hill
I don't understand what's going on
What could I have done so wrong?

Someone is speaking
His words are unclear
But on him I can smell
That pungent trace of beer

'I'm going to die!'
I can't help thinking
'He doesn't know what he's doing
He's been drinking'

I try to sit up
I try to move back
But then a pain in my head
And everything goes black

I wake up in the hospital
My mom looking down at me
There are tears in her eyes
So I try to let her be

She sees that I'm awake
Her tears become a sob
I don't understand
And my head begins to throb

She tells me that she's sorry
That she feels so bad
I still don't know
Why she's so sad

I look around at the room I'm in
Throat dry, and my stomach hurts
I can't imagine a single time
That I've ever felt worse

My entire body is in pain
There's an IV in my arm
Yet still on my wrist
Is my favorite lucky charm

'Some luck it gave me'
I think in my head
As I'm totally helpless
Lying here on the bed

I've been raped and mugged
The doctor informs me
I refuse to believe it
How could this be?

Time goes by
I get to go home
I never leave again
I stay at home

The darkness scares me
All mysterious and black
It gets under my skin
It holds me back

Written in March of 2004.