For Closure

The sun rises, alarm clock shrills, traffic noises, screaming children, garbage trucks
With these sights and sounds, pain awakens

Unbroken whispers, incessant, pervasive, continue their constant siege
As a nest of needles, pain greets the day

Nattering and nagging, demanding attention, insistent as the specter
A shrill-voiced harpy, pain suffuses flesh and bones

Dulled and drugged, held briefly at bay, mere moments, pacing impatiently
Moaning its sad lament, pain bides its time

Lonely and lost, a child waiting in a dark, unknown place, an unknown fate
Whimpering and quivering, pain seeks solace

Prodding and poking with sharp sticks, scattering broken glass on the road
Hiding in unexpected places, pain crashes like lightning

Crying in selfish sorrow, no thought or consideration for anyone anywhere
Bitter tears of pain swamp all feeling

Gasping, wincing, caught unaware by a wanton wound, a new pathway carved
Hot pokers, honed scalpels, pain strikes, lingers, slips away

Always present, veiled, at the edge of thought, vision, feeling, imagination
In familiar haunts, seedy alleys, pain lurks

Slyly scheming, circumspect, searching, sending out secret sorties, suffering
Striking sharply, swiftly, suddenly, pain probes defenses

Creeping closer, crawling just below consciousness, awareness most distracted
Overwhelming being, leaving a mere shadow, pain enfolds

Screaming, battering and beating, crashing swords against shields, booted feet stamping
Driving out all thought, reason, pain controls desire

Within the scared walls of being, self, the defenses broken, palisades breached
Stabbing with its steely knives, pain forbids sleep

Overtaken by exhaustion, no fight, no hope, no energy, nothing forces attention
Blanketed by fatigue, darkness, pain is surrendered

Until the sun rises, alarm clock shrills, traffic noises, screaming children, garbage trucks
With these sights and sounds, pain awakens