Fears

What do you fear?

The shadow asked with a tilt of his head

A great many things; the living, the dead. 

Pain, death, and losing the ones I hold dear

Darkness in strangers and that in the mirror.

What I could be capable of in the darkest of times

Thoughts of the traumas I relive in my mind

Breaking my teeth, my pets crossing the bridge

Those days when my mind seems to hang on a hinge

Being attacked and left mangled and bloody

Reaching old age, never being somebody

My body being that of the soil to devour 

In the face of a battle, choosing to cower

The last time my name is said decades from now

And that’s just the start, I say with a bow. 

The shadow sat contemplating my words with a sigh

But the sun creeped through before he could reply