Doubt's Shadow (Poetry)

Oh! How it hangs about me — caught
in sleep’s long dusty folds
some shapeless fear my mind has wrought
and inner darkness holds

while gathering grim silence round —
a weight I can’t ignore
presses in — no sight or sound
yet chills me more and more.

Old thoughts are rags once worn aloud
flung careless far and wide
now time has stitched them to a shroud
and stifles me inside.

The mirror throws my image back
rejected — clouded grey —
doubt’s shadow finds each flaw and crack
unpicks and casts away...