Reality Dysfunction

Something lurks inside my eyelids,

Like a familiar dream.

I feel I've been here before,

Walked down paths long unseen.

…

My memories, floating like pollen,

More bitter than sweet.

Thermopylae and Icarus,

Feelings of death and defeat.

…

It's like something most monumental,

And very far away.

Yet I'm now within the Marathon,

Cut off from the light of day.

…

Doubt is dwelling deep within me,

But I grind it down to dust.

But Durandal, he's gone crazy,

So who have I left to trust?

…

These aliens, they hunt me,

See them in my peripheral vision.

But I must keep pressing onward.

Must continue with the mission.

…

Finally I reach a terminal,

There's text like an unsent letter.

Leela, thankfully is active,

But the news it is not better.

…

Yet as I read, my mind it wanders,

Deep within it nightmares lie.

Like something with claws, it lashes out,

I hear sirens shots and cries.

…

For a moment, humans are my foes,

For a moment, I am Death.

For a moment, I'm just a walking weapon,

For a moment, I draw no breath.

…

But the moment ends, and I'm returned,

To the text upon the screen.

Text that's there to give me orders,

Text that is so green.

…

I ask myself, "what has changed?"

Orders, carried out.

Even as I teleport,

I hear the screams and shouts.

…

A splinter lurks within my mind,

But focus I must keep.

Already, the ship it is falling,

We already risk defeat.

…

And so I fight and so I kill,

Partake in acts obscene.

I ask, is this reality,

Or am I inside a dream?

A/N

This was the result of a poem challenge I took on. A list of phrases was given with the idea of using them in a poem or story. The challenge I took was to write a poem which used as many of the phrases as possible. Said phrases were:

- "something with claws"

- "oddly inflated"

- "inside my eyelids"

- "grind it to dust"

- "a familiar dream"

- "a friend of a friend of a friend"

- "in my peripheral vision"

- "like an unsent letter"

- "monumental and very far away"

- "flooded the basement"

- "more bitter than sweet"

- "floating like pollen"

Obviously didn't get them all, but hopefully I can be excused for nothing flooding the basement on the Marathon. That, and the cyborg probably isn't in a position to have a friend of a friend of a friend either.