Open Your Eyes by Nada Adel Sobhi– Poem

Shackled in the confines of my mind,

The pain lingers, warming itself,

In its new vessel: Me.

Shrouded in blackness, eyes stare blind,

I know there is a mirror before me,

But the reflection – likely grim – is not for me to see.

I try to move, but something holds me back,

Bound, incarcerated in my own mind,

I scream

But my screams are lost in the whirlpool of my head.

I struggle to open my eyes

What has glued them shut?

I howl as the skin tears apart

They open

But to what end…

Darkness reigns free

Stretching endlessly

Ahead, around, below, beyond,

My mind mocks me, torments me.

The morbid bastard!

I curse it

But my words are hollow

Ricocheting on the walls

I am nothing

Staring in the abyss of time.

Life wasted, useless.

I cry.

Tears stream down my face,

Warm against the frigidness,

They embrace me in a cocoon

I close my eyes,

Red and green circles cloud my vision,

I count them, arrange them; damned OCD

I wonder

Who or what has caused this…

This trauma?

Was I traumatised?

How? When?

Questions. Questions.

I cover my head with my hands

"Stop asking and rise up

Open your eyes and welcome the light"

The words ring in my ear

Who said them?

I ignore my own question

I shut my eyes. Hard.

I'm scared.

A coward.

Have I become my own victim?

I shake my head,

I hear, feel

My shackles on the floor.

I may not be strong

But I can get up

I will not be any embodiment

Of all that is good,

That crap they say.

But I will rise.

And face my demons.

I open my eyes.

By: Nada Adel Sobhi
Written Thursday, 24 August 2017, at 18:17

I asked friends for a word bank and this is one of the word banks that came through.

Sarah AbdelBadee's word bank: Trauma, OCD, shackled, cocoon, morbid, pain, shroud, whirlpool, endless, Embodiment