when you're tired and need to sleep,
you go to sleep.
it is dangerous to stay awake if your eyes
are closing--
at the wheel, at work, in public.

but what if the exhaustion is
deeper than your muscles,
bones, and joints creaking.
what if it is so totally
incapacitating that you are

going to fall down?

what if you can't sleep?
how do you take a nap, a break,
a respite, from life?

you wake up in the morning,
because the morning wakes up for you.
you stay low in the evening,
because the evening don't care for you.

you stay away from bright lights,
because it highlights the things we do.
you cry because it's all blinding,
but it's only blinding to you.

The weight of the world is a struggle,
That keeps me awake at night.
And when my back threatens to slouch,
I stay straight and tall despite--

I can't help but to watch the people
Live. The people look so free,
Meanwhile there's a crushing rock,
That stresses down upon me.

A most titanic failure am I,
Impeded by my pride, never satisfied,
Now I exist to suffer alone,
And I abide, along this western side.

Lightning strikes, tides roll high, the dark settles.
Gone is my brother, and I only pray,
That the olympianism I show,
Will change that one day.

When will the earth swallow me fully?
One day I know she will, and show
The heavens I am missing.
My knees shake fast, but time is adagio.

Punishment can only last so long,
I wish to see the stars at last.
But this mountain; I must endure myself,
Holding the world upon its wicked Atlas.