Haunting

What wraith walks in your sleep?
Whose name do you swallow behind your teeth?
Who makes you wake, a-tremble?
Whose hands bound a cage around your heart?
Whose image casts a shadow on your soul?
Whose spectre lies uneasy in your mind?
Who are you haunted by?

Whose voice whispers ice into your veins?
Whose memory casts aspersions on your judgement?
Whose betrayal poured acid on your trust?
Who are you haunted by?

Your past imprisons you
You knawed off your soul
to 'scape the trap
and left yourself behind.
And I
though I try
cannot
set you
free.

-- Kathryn Andersen