Dreams of Anxiety

One day my anxiety woke me

from the grips of a fretful slumber

I was young and unaware

that such dreams

were not as real

as they seemed

Tickle Dreams we called them

An innocuous name

for wrenching pain

stomachaches

emanating from

unknown, psychedelic enemies

holding me in purgatory

half-aware

of the battles that were not there

An image that haunts

is an image all the same

Like anxiety

clenching wisps of smoke

that I alone could see