i woke up
just some
time ago
when i realized
i just wasn't
doin it right -

i wasn't doin it
at all -

classify sleep.

the time spent
prettyin' up
your lofty wants
in the nestles
of the night

or

the time spent
every day
doin a
whole
lotta
nothin
and probably
thinkin you
weren't

?

sleep.

tha's when
you blind
thinkin you
really
know what
red is

it's when you
stone cold
deaf
and live on
thinkin'

you can
still hear
just as
clear

His Voice.

My skin wears need. Like
static from an old t.v. screen-
willing you to touch.
But don’t touch me, OK?
Don’t look me in the eye,
and don’t ask.
Don’t ask 'cause I’d say yes,
when I should say no.
I’d say yes and I’d mean it.
But the whole world ‘d fall apart
after.

Let my tears hit the earth, and up from them spring flowers.
Let someone pick them and take them to their lover.
Let my love be recycled into theirs,
For it never had the chance to live.

I'm running through forests in my mind, i'm skating on golden ponds.
I finally have you to myself, but only until dawn.
Our night begins under milky twilight, my hand fits into yours.
We journey across the unknown land, we wade through out the shores.
The cool night breeze blows gently first, but harder as we run.
Our time together will disappear as the night sky meets the sun.
We don't look back as we venture on, lost in the midnight blue.
Our laughter plays the only song, we have the heart to dance to.
Everything feels safer in the secrecy of night,
Our hopes and fears feel shameful in the broad and burning daylight.
I see the intensifying horizon, glowing pink and yellow and red,
Early morn is coming, and with it a sense of dread.
As the seconds slip by, I realize it's time, to the "real world" I must return,
As the song birds cry, during the day all the while, to be in the night is what I yearn.

i.
you fought like a tiger -
to stop me from rubbing
sun screen on your delicate
skin, you hated the greasy
feel, and so ran into the ocean
then rolled in the sand and
kicked sand in my face,
               at four
Great Hollow Beach, Truro
     June, 1994

ii.
you never could resist -
if we turned our back
even for a minute you
were off to find the largest
boulder, you would climb to
the top and raise your arms
in victory, and always, always
land in the water, wet and cold,
              at eight
City Beach, South Lake Tahoe
     June, 1998

iii.
oh, how Mt. Baldy called to you -
the giant of a sand dune,
moving inland as a glacier,
a sweep of sand blowing
from the peak ridge, like
the banner of heaven, but
i carried you all the way
back to the house after
you cut your foot on a shard
of glass, carelessly abandoned,
              at eleven
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
     June, 2001

You

With your designer blinders on
Custom made
      Measured
             Fitted
Secured tightly in place
     With diamond studded screws in each temple.

Proud of your daily ignorance.
Worshiper of indifference.
                      Void
                 Vacant
Cold to the touch
     Revealing the constricted flow of life within.

How do you sleep?

While the rest of the world weeps.

© Tina Thompson