Red like blood
Black like the shadows we hide in
Timid, dark purple.

It happens at night
in the alone-dark,
in a hospital room
where someone is dying,
where your scary imagination lives.

It smells salty like sweat,
like burning flesh,
like rot
and feels rough as sandpaper,
as jagged rocks,
as 20-thread-count sheets.

Fear...

Black like storm clouds,
like emptiness,
like the bottom of the ocean.

It happens when you hear sounds
in the night
and you are all alone,
when you step into the unknown.
Fear happens a lot.

Fear sounds like a creak,
like a high-pitched scream,
like dark silence
and tastes dry
like a throat with no saliva
left to swallow.

Fear...