Alone in the Dark
Alone in the dark, I’m scared of the imaginary beings spawned from make-beliefs and deep
contemplations. That eerie beast of the night lies in wait, ready to haunt me to death in my
sleep.
Like many others, I have awakened to the cruel realities of my past deeds, relentlessly
stalking me. The skeletons, big and small. who walked to my doorsteps unheralded, have let
themselves in. I cannot undo them; I have remanded them to a wooden prison by my bedside.
Yet, it won’t hold them for long.
The emissaries of my mother’s probe will come knocking but fail in their attempted jailbreak,
as her unstable emotions cloud her pursuit. She drifts into oblivion, lost in a world where I
was everything but herself.
At sunrise, they broke free, forcing me to mouth-pouring confessions, my skeletons revealed
to a cynical world, exposing my failed grand scheme. My lover’s cat is out of the bag,
running for safety, and my mother freezes, suffering a panic attack, she was thrown back into
that ugly past, unprepared for the truth.
In total surrender, they walked me to my room, reminding me of what she had taught me about
dry bones that could live again, and today they do.
I shut the door, left alone in the dark, frightened by the being I had created within myself.
Contributor’s Bio
Oladimeji Olatunji is a writer who loves to illustrate God’s love in pieces long and short. He
also enjoys musing on affairs of the heart, and societal norms.
