You Know It

• Indyana Sheaff, Grade 10
• Poetry
• 2014

You know it.
You can't escape the reality.
You can't escape me.

I am the thing that keeps you up at night when all you want to do is drift off into a dreamless sleep.
You do go to sleep, but it's not dreamless.
I haunt your mind,
I am the reason you wake up several times a night in a cold sweat.
I consume your thoughts,
I am all you think about, and the only thing you long to forget.
Every wrong you ever did,
I remember it.
And I remind you every day.
I am the reason you can't concentrate.
You try desperately to escape my grip on you,
You know me for your entire life but we never become friends.
You hate me and what I do to you.
I am the reason you linger on the border of insanity.
I am your conscience.

You know it.
You can't escape the reality.
You can't escape me.