The nightmares have come again,
Just like the old songs and forgotten notes,
They creep in disguised like memories,
Those I tried to box up and bury,
But the old woods call to me.

Down the hallway of yester-year,
I hear a faraway voice, maybe yours, maybe mine,
I try to move forward but my legs are heavy,
I try to see but my eyes are clouded,
I hear a sound, a ringing, a doorbell.

Oh what have I done?
Trudging down the stairs through misty vision,
No longer in the church of youth,
But in the place I end my days,
And the bell is tolling.

Each painful, agonizing step is in slow motion,
Like the last two years’ dark moments,
At last I reach the front door,
Where outside she waits to lift the haze,
“You must open your eyes”, she says,
A stranger, yet familiar,
“You must open your eyes.”

I awoke startled in the dark bedroom and started to pray,
As always I look over at the one beside me,
Always appearing to sleep soundly,
But this time I had woken to the nightmare.

“Please, release the bonds that bind him,”
I whisper thrice, clutching the faithful pendant,
And there arose from his bedside – a vengeance,
A dark beast, snarling – reaching out to strangle me.

The creature grabbed me about the throat,
Choking my prayer, my breath, right out of me,
I opened my eyes with a fighting scream,
The dark form vanished and left me back in reality,
Traces of fear and pain around my neck remaining.

These are the dreams of yesterday,
The tormentors of our youth,
Absent for nearly decades…
What have they come back to say?