Nightmare II

Anchored in this groggy dream, unaware of passing
of time or space or anything that I am amassing.
Triggers from the past float by, pale and half-recalled.
Corridors of memories––narrow, densely walled.
No way to check these stories from a cursed past.
How could we have  known how long past memories might last?
The cattle stir, the hoot owl hoots and night birds sing their song––
accompaniment to nightmares that draw us, too, along.

The prompt words for The Sunday Whirl are: aware passing stirred check groggy trigger pale dream space anchor cursed low

Nightmares

One night out of ten I ride these ghostly horses.
They toss their heads and whinny as they take me through their courses.
They are the wandering skeletons of a bygone life
when I was a child or when I was a wife.
They remind me of my promises and break them once again,
replay all the suffering of places I have been.
They point out what I wanted and what I didn’t get,
relate every failure and recall every debt.
They nightly make me prisoner and make me walk the walk.
They bring me to my knees, my head upon the block
as my past life streams before me and I listen to the chatter
of all those bygone comments I was convinced didn’t matter.
How I dread their hoofbeats, these horses of the night,
and how glad I am they vanish with the coming of the light.

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 601 the prompts are: block call promise dreams stream life wandering skeletons want knees suffering listen