Can I exist without you?

For you, blasted devil, the persistent whining nag at my ear

and the dagger that sways slightly in the breeze

as it hovers without remorse or feeling

at the knotted black foul smelling lumps in my spine,

can I truly be who I am now without your whispered

torture, the sledge hammer attacks and small drill bit

sensation causing ripples up and down what is

no longer there, if you too also disappear without trace?

An old friend I hadn’t seen