Shadow of Slumber

I am alive, but I cannot wake from my sentence.

Trapped in a prison of consciousness

All sensations rush through my brain,

Yet I feel nothing, I hear nothing, and I see nothing.

I tell myself I must function as panic sets in.

I can feel my pulse elevate beneath my damp skin;

As I recollect the words, I recollect the actions.

I can feel everything, hear everything, see everything,

Yet everything does not exist, and the nothingness settles back in.

Lacking shape, there is only emptiness.

Lacking sound, there is only silence.

Lacking light, there is only darkness.

Personification begins in the form of a wandering mind.

Where has my consciousness gone today?

Somewhere that cannot possibly exist, yet it does.

I can feel the heat, hear the wind, and see the clouds,

But I am not in the storm.

I am lying comfortably, or rather uncomfortably,

As the day continues to exist without me.

I reach for a way out inside my mind.

The walls continue to grow higher and higher.

My sensation of being trapped is real, but I am actually free.

Free to break through the walls of the prison of consciousness,

But somehow the prison that does not exist holds me captive.

My desperation begins to boil and the fear takes over.

I reach for a way out but realize that I cannot grasp it.

I begin to accept this shadow as death.

When finally the hand comes to set me free.