Sabotage

The emotional cycle one can find themselves in from time to time.

Doubt spews venom into my ear; a snake

      sitting calmly upon my shoulder, its

tongue kissing anger, fear and self loathing into me

      with every flick. I try to brush it

away only nothing is there and I am

      alone with only my thoughts, skeletons

of memories and scars renewed.

It seems no matter how many times I

      run I find myself returned here

to this graveyard of yesterday and

      years ago - where thoughtless criticisms

and angry insults take phantom form,

      haunting in daylight. The longer they

linger the more I feel myself fading

      into the ether to join them.

This causes panic among my synapses

      and I try to grasp for something real,

alive, but as always I fail and fall

      into a place that swallows me like death.

So I wait for reason and truth to prevail

      and lead me back to the freedom of sanity.

Author's Note

I'm mostly looking for stylistic critiques. Content comments are ok, but I would prefer focus on imagery, style, flow, etc.