I could pretend to be asleep
Pretty easily, wrapped up
With sheets and distracted
By dreams, breathing deeply.

I could explain what it is to be
Comfortable, forgetting common
sense and getting caught up in realities
that slip away with the covers.

I could define words like "snore",
"rest", or "relax", but it seems
That when I seek to end the day
The finish line looks a bit dreary:

Another day of the same people,
The same fears, the same problems,
and the same yearning for something
I don't even recognize.

Walking in yesterdays footprints
so closely that with practice
I may be able to step on
My own heels.

I could go to sleep I suppose,
But I fear that might bring
Another day.
So for now, I'll stay awake.

I wasn't a man lost in the desert,
I was a man who did not believe in water.
I walked barefoot on the sand,
A merchant's caravan with nothing to sell.

I wasn't trapped in a dark place,
I simply never sought to open my eyes.
I betrayed the darkness with my skin,
A sickly ghost in a sea of shadow.

I stumbled along seeing but not looking,
As my uneven gait slowed to a drag.
I pulled lines through the sand
With two uncooperative pens.

I wasn't there
As I fell to my hands, and then
To my face, as the grains washed
Over my cheeks and filled my nose with brine

I wasn't in need of water,
I was in need of a boat.
Awash in monstrous waves
That tore away the world.

The very thing I needed
Was now threatening to be my end.
I closed my eyes and held my breath
And decided it wasn't real.


I wasn't a man lost in the desert,
I was a man who did not believe in water.

The sand burned and bit at my toes
As I stumbled along the dunes
The world thrashed, and in its throes
I found myself trapped and marooned.

You weren't a lake,
Nor a great typhoon,
But one cloud who would take
My hopes and dash them as you moved.

As you were swept away to new places
I cried my last tears, my water wasted.
You drifted off to wet ungrateful faces,
But you could've been my oasis.

My feet were kept from dragging
When I was wrapped in her embrace
She kept my heart from sagging
When she clung around my waist.

But now she's left me sprawling
And embarrassed when I knelt
She's gone and my pants are falling
I really need a new belt.

He said
That I could do
Anything I wanted
He meant that I should just do what
He said.