Witness

Witness was written in September of 2021 for this project.

This poem is about my feelings of anxiety and dread, specifically about being watched or stalked by some lurking entity.

The narrator of this poem describes being "watched," "stalked" by unseen eyes; this paranoia haunts them, rules their life.

Themes:
  • Paranoia
  • Anxiety
  • Stalking
Eyes are peering.
Hollow and sharp,
They’re waiting,
(Always watching)
Watching through the
Looking glass --
(The eyes)
Smearing judgments
And enmity
Against me.
Creeping,
Stalking,
(Hunting)
From the backs
Of every passing head
And in the lens of
Every camera,
The eyes follow
(Relentlessly).
Everything done
(No escaping)
Or said
(They see it)
Is etched like
The scrawls of a
Tombstone.
I know no peace.
(Never)
For this life of
Torment and dread
Is all that’s left for me.
Followed. Hunted.
(Witnessed.)
The eyes could be interpreted as literal, though here I intended it to be a symbol of the feel of paranoia -- that hair-raising sensation on of being watched, even if you can't see anyone there.
They're not just watching, they're judging. The fear is not just of being seen, but being picked apart.
The paranoia extends to every person they encounter, random strangers on the street, the lens of any random camera -- all exist to watch, to judge.
They feel copletely resigned to their fate. This is their life, being nothing but fodder for the eyes.
Horror atmosphere, dark and eerie humming and whining from ZapSplat