it is incomprehensible
to believe that never before
have my eyes been opened
to the galaxy that lingers
within you.

I do not know
how a smile so familiar, so kind, so warm
and so often returned
can only now
feel like home.

I can't seem to pinpoint
how such a vicious storm
made of roaring oceans and bolts of light
that paralyze
my every last bone inside
only just now begin to fill my insides
when your heart beats close to mine.

Only now are long nights beginning
to make sense
only now am I beginning to see
and not to see, but to question
Why I've spent an eternity
searching cities filled with treasure
and adventure and promise and gold
when a certain potential,
a promise of happiness
may have been lingering
by my side
all along.

you are beautiful.
you are tragically beautiful.
you are notre dame
at night.
you are the eiffel tower
amidst bombshells.
you are the house of commons
and the house of lords.
you are the lone beam
standing after Katrina.
you are the one baby sea turtle
who makes it off the beach.
you are the dark side of the moon.
you are the patch of sand
struck by lightning.
you are the remains discovered
after the plane goes down.
you're a smooth puddle in a parking lot.
you are the creaky stair
that warns of intruders.
you are all of the red skittles.
you are Job 3:14.

Over the course of my skirmish with sleeplessness
More has been learned than I care to admit.
Although frequently,
I am blinded by frustration.
Coupled with the vicious need to sleep
And lack of.
But I have learned.

I have learned to acknowledge
The transition of dark to day
A process
I often neglected to think of before.
It is easier, I have found,
To pick yourself up
From the depths of your mind
When you are stood side by side
With a sun rising so bright.

I have learned of change,
And its magnificence.
Not long ago it was one more thing to be shunned,
A curse.
I once feared the unknown and unexplored
Unaware of the ever-morphing cycle outside my window
Spanning each and every season of the year.

I have learned of time
And the abundance of it carelessly slept away
In the panic of eluding reality.

I have learned of every birdsong sang
outside the outer glass of my window
A single composition
that had once sounded like a clone
a carbon copy of those previously heard
now a sweet waking melody
it emerges from the dark.

I have learned of the quiet and stillness
That is essential to knowing oneself.
All distractions put to bed
My company is my own.
And in the absence of sleep,
I have made a friend in my self.