I don't want to close my eyes
and let it take me,
the way it did
all its other victims:
prisoners of their own thoughts,
vulnerable to the darkness,
defenseless against its smothering hands.
I don't want to turn out the lights
though I know they can't protect me forever.
I don't want to fall asleep,
fall into the labyrinths of dreamland,
just to find my killer waiting in every corner that I come to
and run from.
I cannot close my eyes tonight.
I will not close my eyes tonight.
But is that...?
Is that a lullaby I hear,
off on a distant breeze somewhere?
No, I will not fall asl-...