To curse one’s self to be so sure,
Not to be tossed on the waves of wood
That flow across the floor to the door.
Needle fingers harm without intent;
To suck and inject such malevolence.
Heard the cry from my bed, surrounded by furious candlelight.
Down stairs, where the spiral traps
Those who come bearing ignorance.
I thought briefly that carolers had come,
And that they’d sought to aid me endure my plight.
But my memory began to slip,
I was now caught in a lapse.
The walls began to creak and moan,
To goad me on and ensure my vengeance.
For out of the darkness I should see,
My own staring back at me.
I started at once to take flight,
But caught myself in jest.
If so surely, I had come to kill myself
And do my own family harm.
I surely would be better aided,
By the unswayed enemies I daily spy.
Certainly, this seems quite a dream;
At my feet lay the utmost tools of cruelty.
The eye of a writhing serpent,
Opening its mouth as if to cry for repentance.
As if to be so sure of this revelation,
I strode away through the nearby door. Only to fall, and land with a heavy thud.
Across my bare skin, I felt the smooth body of the snake as it slithered around me.
As it neared my head, I again saw the eye, ever open and utterly terrifying.
As it opened its mouth to strike,
I saw my own face in its eyes.
And woke up, as the fangs sank into my throat.
I found myself in a pool of sweat,
I tried to reassure myself at last.
Then I saw, lit by dim candlelight, in the clock beside my bed my own eyes so full of dread.
Then across the floorboards came a deafening sound, the cry of a voice that I knew at once.
“You’re mad. I should take you to a hospital at once. There, you’ll not be able to hurt yourself anymore.”
The voice of my brother, long ago driven away.
I could have sworn he was out to get me,
Claiming me to be ill.
My lapse over, I came to realize
My own brother was such a snake.
In the darkness that has been heralded,
Who am I to truly know.
To be so sure, as to not fall;
Through cracks in reality where sanity is so removed, the snake ever writhing on the floor.