Lull Me To Sleep

I see bodies hanging from trees

Every time I close my eyes and near my dream lands

I see it

A massive tree

With bodies for leaves

The branches

Gnarled around the rotting figures

To me, they are a masterpiece

A work of art

Created by the insane

I commend them

I yearn for their dead voices

Calling to me

 

“Come here,

Come here,

Come here and dance with us,

Play our games,

Come close to us

We want to play”

 

 

 

And when I near the tree

I smell sweet scents

But I see the decrepit

I see their skin, yellowed and wearing then; their veins, visible

I can see the illuminated glow of their bones

Their faces adorned with maggots

Their eyes

Where are their eyes?

There they are

On a pile, swarmed over with flies and bees

Like manure

Their heads turn as I walked beneath them

Their hands reaching out to touch me

They never do

 

 

 

“Come to us,

Play us a song from your childhood,

We wish to take you to the darkness in your heart,

Don’t turn away,

You are our toy now,

You have come into our world now,

There is nowhere to run”

 

 

Their voices chant

As my feet begin slowing down

I stop, looking up

Their bodies so perfect

So rotted, yellowed and crude with the branches, becoming a part of them

I can smell them

Like death

To me, they smell so sweet

So fresh

I wish to become them

 

“Come to us,

We will take your pain away,

We will dry your eyes,

We will make all your worst nightmares go away,

No one will be able to hurt you from up here”

 

Their singing

Takes my breath away

And so I succumb

To the numbness in my heart

And I start to tremble

Going over to a tree, I stand under it

The closest body hanging there grasped my throat

Her dead hands against my skin

Felt so weak

As if one finger might break her wrist

But her grip was sure and certain

Her words lulled me to sleep

 

“No one will remember your name,

No one will care that you’ve gone missing,

Everyone’ll play their games,

It won’t be your memory they’ll be kissing,

No one cares about you,

You’re just like one of us,

You’ve done no wrong,

Except love too much,

Dry your tears now,

You’re on to a better place now,

With your name printed in ruby crimson”

 

I found myself hung

Like an ornament

On that marvelous tree of bodies

I saw the whole world from up here

This view

If only I had someone to share it with

And yet

I did

As I turned around,

A twisted face told me it’d take time for beauty to come

For beauty to come

 

“Dear Wickedness, your Highness,

Here’s another addition,

To your tree”