at midnight,
as I take off my shoes,
my coat,
shirt, tie, vest,
socks and
pants,
I am caught in
the delirium
of
revolution

this revolution
takes place entirely
within me

my kidneys are
attacked in destructive
raids,
my knees knocked
and sweltered with
war,
my mind shot at
and frantically
mended,
my heart has
seen much better
days

it is an uprising against
myself

a war
to overturn
the old thinking
regime

outside of me,
I can feel the sting
of bullet and
blade

inside of me,
I can see the pain
of evolution and
change

I rest my weary head tonight
drunk on thoughts of an end
to all this

by the morning’s
cool touch
I will find myself
rid of such
thoughts

wondering only if
she’ll be there for me
when I call her twenty;
thirty; forty years
from now

I watch the night turn about me
and rest my eyes for the first time