The realm of nightmares, beneath the cold and silver grin of the stars,
Treading through passages of dread,
Where shadows writhe, and walls grow thin,
As whispers crawl from ear to head.
The clock unmakes each moment’s tread,
Time drips to dust and fades away,
The voices of the ancient dead,
Their chilling grins lead unfortunates astray.
A sky of crimson, decadent with ash,
Hangs heavy over this broken realm,
The earth beneath begins to thrash,
As claws reach up through cursed sand.
Wandering through the realm of nightmares,
Locked away in endless nights,
Where every step, each haunted lair,
Steeped in sorrow, drenched in fright.
No solace here, no peace of mind,
In this dark realm, the soul’s alone,
Where horrors bloom grotesque, unkind,
And terror sinks deep to the bone.
A scream escapes, but silence reigns,
A ghostly sound that’s never heard,
While stars above ignite with flames,
And burn away the final remark.
With every moment, the walls collapse,
The floor beneath bends and snaps,
The realm of nightmares, vast and infinite,
No start, no end—just shattered maps.
The trees are twisted, black and bare,
Their limbs reach out with claws of spite,
From their breath, bitter winds ensnare,
Extinguishing the newborn light.
No dawn will come to end this storm,
No morning’s grace to chase the gloom,
For in the realm of nightmares, no light takes form,
And shadows haunt each quiet room.
Eyes burn like coals in masks grim,
Their gaze, the deepest, darkest dread,
And though they wear a thousand shrouds,
Not one of them was indeed dead.
They form from phantoms, born of fear,
Each nightmare weaves from horror’s thread,
Their breath, the wind; their voice sings clear,
Of sleepless nights and waking dread.
The ground below turns into clay,
It pulls all down into its strand,
Where darkness swallows the light of day,
And reason cracks like brittle sand.
Falling, falling—there is no end,
No waking from this cursed blight,
For in the realm of nightmares, the rules will bend,
And all are trapped in endless nights.
Esther Elizabeth Racah
