It’s easy to avoid yourself when you’re busy, often you don’t even realise you are doing it.

But after a moments calm, when the pace of life slows for a time, the sound of silence fast becomes overpowering. Amidst the silent drone all you hear are those thoughts that bedevil you most, that yip and yap and fizz in your ears, altering the chemical balance of your brain, causing a mood swing so fast you practically clothesline yourself...

...someone makes a joke at your expense, when you are feeling just a tad too tired, a little bit over it, and like they pressed the eject button, you find yourself thrown sideways into a hall of mirrors...

You open your eyes and can’t avoid catching a glimpse of yourself - In an instant you are reacquainted with your insecurities, irrationalities, paranoia.

and like a guillotine it slices through you. You realise that despite being happy, alive and confident in your shoes; that same feeble, scared and battered being remains within you.

Thus you haunt yourself in the silence, in the dark and the quiet,

and in broad daylight your soul feasts upon itself, despite your most sincere protests.