Sometimes her skeleton doesn’t sit right
Before the sunrise and since midnight
The room filled with haze, her chest is too tight
And with every yawn, eyes open in spite

I’ll take this panic attack
And drive her car right off the road
Off the bridge, that sinking feeling
About to sleep and not explode

I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling as the hours tick by

1..2..3 am

I can’t sleep.

I toss and turn trying to find comfort, but its impossible

I can’t sleep.

I count to 126 trying to find fatigue, but its impossible

By 3:30 i manage to rest.

I wake at 11:00, almost noon..

Half my day is gone..

Again today
I went to bed as the sun rose.
The creeping blue-grey dawn
signalled to me
it was time to sleep.

My sleep does not come easily though
and many a night,
I sit through the dark hours
waiting for that dawn to come.

Should I worry that my sleep
comes only as dawn breaks?

I don’t mind;
the night holds no fear for me
in fact, I relish those dark hours,
the solitude,
when all is silent,
when all is calm.

And when I do sleep,
it is fitful and fraught,
just a few fretful hours
embellished by strange visions.

And on waking,
I am not always refreshed
but the days are long enough
for a few more hours
of fretful rest
before the sun sets
and I can again enjoy
the dark hours
in my solitude.

in the serenity of the night
Peace
At last

Men are sleeping
Cats, exploring
Mice seek their sustenance, as men will do at dawn

Insomnia,
Those awake enjoy
The peace
Of the night

Mangy balding dog of a night
poor and patchy thing
of wretched countenance
scratching,
chasing dreams around the basket,
you made my head an insect
one of your hopping fleas,
a buzzing nameless fly
which skims the conscious pond
but fearful of the darkness never dives too deep,
a restless twitching larvae, counting pointless sheep

The world and all its many fingered thumbs
has me by the throat
tugging hard at the wire
gripping tight it cuts, sharp at the prospect of another hour
until I do not know if flesh is bone,
bone is flesh,
or some thing in-between,
all is pain, and pain is all
lightning in a head that is filled to the lips with rags and straw
raw alight and burning bright, although I wish it were not so
I want it dim to let me sleep,
let me hide in dull-thought darkness
calm beneath the leafy shedding midnight trees
with their echoed mindless hum
and owls, there are always owls
screeching brutes of talon tinted wings
that eat the other flying things that haunt my night
and I can only lay
and wait for morning light

Go back to sleep
It whispers to me
With my head in my hands
While my body and all I am
Fall deeper in uncertainty

Go back to sleep
It whispers softly
Doing so delicately
Cautions as to not make me
Feel guilty

Go back to bed
We'll watch out for danger
And have an ear for strangers
So you could sleep instead

Go back to bed
You need your rest
We understand your reasoning
But right now its not what's best

Please,
Go back to sleep
Listen to our expertise
Before you find yourself too deep

Lay down to sleep
Our dearest lamb
We know it's hard
We understand

We've felt the burden on your soul
And while we'd help you out of any hole
Before we must
Could we first try what we've discussed

Please,
Go back to sleep
You can trust
We're proud of you just for trying
But you have done enough