Sleep

Sleeping, I avoid it like the plague.
I wait, patiently for exhaustion to take over the fear.
They will strike, but when?
Extreme paranoia mixed with the fear.
They laugh, and they mock waiting for vulnerability.
Phantoms, ghosts and spirits, I don't know what they are.

They are there when I sleep, there when I wake.
I search for difference in the room, it is my dreams they take.
Windows and doors, I open but they never leave.
Creations of a mind of course, faces in places of which they are not.
Who knows when they will strike, will it be day?
Will it be night?
Will it be darkness or will it be light?

Those eyes they stare, as if they know more than I do.
I'm screaming, screaming “I dread to sleep, dread to sleep”
I love the sleep but hate the dreams.
The dreams are not mine, they are not what I want or desire.
They are not dreams at all, they are nightmares of blood and fire.
Those are not mine, how I wish I could control the dreams of which I speak.

They're everywhere, dirty rotten things.
They stand around, waiting waiting for me to sleep.
A trick of the light maybe?
Or have I possibly gone mad?
What is the emotion of it?
Is it anger? Is it sad?

I don't know, but it is definitely something very bad.
“Sleep, sleep, sleep” they chant all together.
Their evil smiles and eyes gleaming, I can see.
I still wait patiently.
Any moment now the exhaustion will become too much.
This paranoia I will lose, I will be out of touch.

“No, no, no” my heart screams, “You mustn't sleep”
“Yes, yes, yes” cries my head, “Go and dream”
What should I do? What should I do?
Sleep, I cannot live without you,
But the dreams, the dreams they haunt me so.
They are harmless so it seems, but they stay forever haunting me.
I fear them now, for they are not my own.

They are those of someone I do not know.
Is it me of whom I do not know?
Is that what they mean?
Maybe it is not a haunting, maybe it's an awakening?
Wake up child, wake up it's only a dream.
I'm sure it can't hurt me, I know it cannot do such a thing.

We are told dreams cannot hurt you.
They are only dreams made up by our imagination.
They cannot change you or leave their marks.
Yet, we remember them do we not?
They are not only dreams, they are far much more.
They leave their marks, making them impossible to ignore.

Sleep now child, comfortable in bed.
Make sure you sleep on your left.
Don't turn your back to them, who knows what they'll do.
They may take your dreams, don't let them take you.