I am haunted by you.

You dog my steps in

the silence of the night

and I lie awake …

tensed for the sound

of your rage.

Drifting off, exhausted,

I startle to every sound,

every breath the house takes

makes me catch my own…

heart pounding…

waiting for pain.

How do I exorcise you

from a place

you never lived?

How do I, instead,

evict you from my heart…

to live no longer haunted?

To breathe again..

Free?