Faces Haunting My Closed Eyes At Night

Faces Haunting My Closed Eyes At Night

The room goes quiet when the light is gone,

And I lie there staring into nothing.

I close my eyes to find some rest,

And that is when they come.

Not dreams, not memories I can name,

Just faces forming out of black.

Close enough that I can almost feel them,

Near enough to steal my breath.

One hangs there with cracked white skin,

Its eyes pressed shut too tightly.

Its mouth looks ready to speak,

Yet no sound ever comes.

Another drifts beside it slowly,

Half in shadow, the rest not right.

I do not know who they once belonged to,

I only know they are not mine.

They do not move like living people,

They do not fade when I look away.

They wait behind my eyelids patiently,

As if this is where they live.

My heart begins to knock too loudly,

The dark grows heavier around me.

I open my eyes to escape them,

But the room feels wrong now too.

So I lie there caught between worlds,

Afraid to sleep, afraid to see.

Because every time I close my eyes,

Those faces are waiting for me.