The Familiar Darkness

The evil they fear, I see as a friend,
a shadow that lingers, never to mend.
For I know it’s there, always close behind,
returning whenever my soul’s walls unwind.

It waits for the cracks, the moments I break,
when my defenses falter, for its hunger to sate.
Fear it, they say, for it’s coming a-knockin’,
but I know its rhythm, the way it keeps stalkin’.

So I build up my walls, close off every way,
fortresses of silence where I hope it will stay.
But this darkness, my companion, my foe,
has learned every secret, the paths that I know.

An enemy so cunning, with infinite guise,
it knows how to slip through my weary eyes.
For it has become my shadowed friend,
and my fortresses fall, all built to pretend.

The moan of the wind, it carries his name,
a whisper that chills like a flickering flame.
All my defenses, lost to the breeze,
a hollow laugh that brings me to my knees.

Now it chooses the most fitting way,
to creep into my soul, to make me sway.
For the evil I know, the darkness I dread,
is the friend that will cradle me when I’m dead.

I prepared for the battles, the war to defend,
but how do you fight what you can’t apprehend?
A foe that knows every fortress you’ve built,
a darkness that thrives on the cracks of your guilt.

For when the walls fall and the moaning winds call,
it’s not the darkness I fear—it’s my own downfall.
And now it has chosen, the method is set—
a demise of my making, a fate to be met.