Confession - 8

I stood face to face with the monster

And took a long pull of my fifth --

Sobriety left in the drift, 

I summoned what pride I could conjure,

Lifted my chin, brave and stiff, 

And with all the guts I could offer

Said, "please let me go," in a whiff. 

She stood seven feet at the shoulder

Above me did phantasm loom --

Clawed her way out of her tomb

(Her presence there made the air colder),

Peered at me there, through the gloom;

I -- her imprisoned beholder,

Bracing for horrible doom.

"It chose you," she hissed in the darkness,

"It sensed your bloodthirsty intent

And thought it may not have been meant,

The jacket that covers your carcass

(Complete with its murderous scent),

I have to destroy it regardless --

To escape from my ghostly lament!

Frozen by hulking phantasm,

I knelt in a deserate prayer --

Pleading to end my nightmare,

Free me from horror's miasm

So ghastly, it whitened my hair --

This creature of dark ectoplasm

Had me terrified, steeped in despair.

My death just beyond the horizon,

My mental composure undone --

Each of my feet weighed a ton,

My skin gone clammy and whitened,

I feared I would be overrun;

Gritting my teeth, my fists tightened,

broke off, and started to run. 

- © Jackson Cambridge, 2016.