Nightmares

Do you get them too?
Those nightmares
that make no sense
yet cling to you like something alive.
The ones that follow you
out of sleep,
breathing against your neck
long after you’ve opened your eyes.

Are we trapped in them?
They nest in the folds of our mind,
whispering in the dark,
waiting for the moment
we lower our guard.
Is that why they return?
because they never really left?

Maybe we’re not waking at all.
Maybe we’re just walking
through a quieter version
of the same nightmare.