Fear

I am the thing you fear.
The bump in the night.
The hair on the back of your neck.
I am that thing.
You look under your bed to find me.
You open your closet door to catch me.
I watch.
You never see.
I am that thing,
the one that makes you tiptoe around the corners of your house,
hoping to avoid the thing that you know is lurking around the hallway corner,
you look so hard through the dark to see.
You can feel me.
You can hear my breath.
I am there.
Watching.
I am that thing.
The one in stories and movies and late-night-sit-in-the-dark-cover-your-face-with-a-pillow TV shows --
I AM THAT ONE.
But you'll never see me,
I won't be there.
I am not for you to see,
I am the watcher.
I am the hunter.
I am the curse.
I am not human not creature.
I am a thought.
I am a feeling.
You can not hide from me.
I do not have to find you, you appear.
I do not seek you, you come.
You are there.
Crouching in the dark.
Clinging to a speck of light.
Hoping for a sound.
You only get me.
The face staring back at you in the mirror,
Look close.
Look deep.
A flash.
I am gone.
Your fears are there.
I see you.
Close your eyes.
Try to sleep.
I am there too.
Waiting.
Watching.
Never leaving.
I am the thing you fear.