Black Fear

• Saniya Hasan, Grade 6, Lakemba Public School
• Poetry
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

I could feel it creeping up inside me; the fear.
It began in the pits of my clenching belly;
A little ball of sniveling, pure darkness.
Then out came its black, slivering tentacles,
And like a vine, it began its journey upwards.
Pushing my organs and intestines out of the way,
It climbed and crawled and clawed hungrily,
Like a starving man trying to quench his thirst.
As it reached my ribs I could so keenly feel it,
Wrapping around each and every rib carelessly,
In and out, in and out, in and out; like a slithering demon.
Then it started to envelop around my contracting lungs,
Smothering them, as if trying to stop me drawing breath,
I could feel the air coming in and out in short puffs.
Suddenly, shocking me, it pierced my beating heart,
Ripping a bloody and painful hole straight through.