What a Pair We Make

I am the festering thought that burrows.

Holds tight as you peer into the faceless future.

You wish me away but I curl like an oily trap around your thoughts.

Let me overstay and suddenly you are filled to the brim.

Too easy it is to write me off as a temporary hesitation or brief flit of insecurity,

Too easy it is to pretend me away, to shake my utterances from your head.

But I know what is deep inside.

I know what is true.

That behind your gilded valor, I know the real you.

The terror behind the visage. The spineless being you are.

I am the rot that lies within.

I have burrowed deep inside.

You are left with me when all you’re better whims subside.

You may weather.

You may suffer.

You may rail against me

But I am what is left at the end.

When dark has come and light has no sanctuary.

Where there is light, a shadow is cast.

Where there is music, a silence to be felt.

Where there is laughter, sorrow to follow.

But what is the absence of bravery, of courage, the dauntlessness that we honor?

It is me my friend.

And my, what a pair we make.

For you know me most intimately of all and I am the only companion you can never forsake.