Haunting, echoing
With every time that I
Close my searching eyes
It's colorful as fireworks
Some darkness, but beautiful
Something wild and wonderful

Every time I close my eyes
It's a calm curiosity
Cold hardwood floors
Warm embraces and
Familiar faces

Every time I close my eyes
It's a grand vastness,
A strange madness
Floating in the expanse
Drifting in the space between

Every time I close my eyes
I am neither here, nor there
Neither then, nor now
Perhaps now and then
When they open, I see
A beam, a ray of light
Guiding me from the endless
Endless nightmare of reality
Leading me away, far away
To where I do not know

Every time I close my eyes
I hope, wish, dream
To open them and be
Gone, gone away from here
In a place where perhaps,
Just maybe, I may belong

Every time I close my eyes
I am, for but a moment,
Gone, lost, disconnected
I have escaped, disappeared
Gone away, vanished
To a place unknown,
To lands uncharted
Besides by the poor
Lone cartographer
Exploring my mind
Ever so curious
As to just what
They may
Find.

- Jay M
June 7th, 2022