Award-Winning Poem (yes, really!)

I wrote this back in 2005 and won a Dark Poetry contest with it.

What is it about silence

And the darkness of the hall;

Of the stillness, of the emptiness,

That’s making your skin crawl?

What is it about solitude,

And white walls, bare and stark-

That makes you think you heard a sound

Like laughter in the dark?

What is that unnerves you?

What is it that you fear?

You think yourself the fool to worry

When there’s clearly nothing there.

So you calm yourself, remember

That you can’t have heard that sound

That the only noise must come from you-

There’s no-one else around.

But- there it is again, you’re sure!

Your heart begins to race.

I wish that you could see the wide-eyed

Terror on your face.

Now you’re certain that there’s something

But there’s no point trying to scream;

I’ve been standing in the shadows,

And I’m dying to be seen…