in which i manufacture nightmares

whitewashed down the shoreline
until I crashed upon the rocks;
a breakwater like a giant's spine,
swallows fleeing in flocks;

a house where no one lives now,
a chessboard empty of men;
the crush of the water that drags me down
and the ocean of devils I've been;

the dreams that crash inside my head,
that hang my body on hooks;
and no one cries, "take me instead!"
in the places where no one looks;

echoing groans and splintering bones.
I guess tonight I'm sleeping alone.