Each night they creep

disrupt your sleep

Snatch you from bed

inside your head

Antagonize

behind your eyes

They aim to scare

and feast on fear

Fade out your light;

they wait in night

And look to find

those stuck behind

The purest heart

can't stop their start

And if you're found

Then you are bound

Puppet at rest

fear pounds the chest

Drums their parade

strums serenade

Dread sings a song

they sing along

Helpless in trance

on strings, you dance

Can't hide or run

toward the sun

When you embark

a night so dark

What it will bring-

remembering

Night won't delay

a mind replay

But the gravel

of your travel

Will not abide

a forward stride

A redirect

to cause effect

Narrows the path

of aftermath

The ones that lurk

were put to work

Minions to whom

assigned your room 

Not to attack

but take you back

A place you know

you can't let go

Arrive at last

to hallways past

Behind each door

hell to explore

A time revived

for pain to thrive

Trapped in a room

of trauma’s bloom

Without release

or offered peace

Night terror looms

in varied rooms

And each one haunts

with ghostly taunts

And some, like me

have rooms of three

Traumatic post

stressed by the host

A swaying noose

of one’s abuse

Abandonment

a grief torment

Betrayed, undone

a hit and run

When nightmares store

from trauma's war

Brave soldiers break

from lives they take

The friend they lost

when limbs were cost

For lives they saved

their minds enslaved

Unfair demise

behind shut eyes

Relive the date

of your born hate

A risk gone wrong

times short or long

If pain you feel

your trauma's real

Although we wake

each day's at stake

Should one mirror

a night terror

We cannot know

each time we go

If one night fear

will keep us there

Still I will quest

for sleep with rest

Night trips could cease

I may find peace

Till then, my doom

each night, this room

Before closed eyes

again, she dies