In the shadows it waits,
Waiting to grab me when I least expect it.
Constantly on guard am I
Watching, waiting for the darkness to come.

If I saw it coming, I’d fend it
off with machete or baseball bat.
But it approaches from behind,
Creeping up ever so silently,
Too late I sense it at my back.
No matter how on guard I am
The darkness never lets me catch it unawares.

It seizes me from behind;
The paralysis takes me,
And I’m falling, forever falling,
Trying to scream through frozen lips.
The blackness swirls around me
And I fall desperately clutching and grasping at nothing as the darkness takes hold.
And I know I will wake not remembering,
Hardly knowing my own name.
It’s a wonder the darkness lets me keep even that.