The Big Demon

By Holland Emerson

Trauma
An ugly demon
It requires space
Demands time
Drains energy

Why not just get rid of it, you say?
Well, biology, I reply
My body remembers what my brain cannot
My eyes are adjusting to the sunlight
Which I have never before seen
And something so good
Overpowers me

So I retreat to the cave
To rest from the shock
But back into the dankness
Which once my innocence took

Has left me destitute
And blinded eye
Something to OUTSIDERS
I can’t describe

I burn easily
But crave the warmth
I fatigue from heat
Not knowing it’s water I need

Never having been taught
In the cool dark caves
Yet survival expected
From land dwellers’ ways

For they have not been in the depths
Nor raised in it
They get claustrophobic
And outside, I, lightheaded

Two worlds
Yet one
I spend my days
Dying in the sun