#rem
The hugs arrive now with a chill, a thermal debt,
Not from the body you were, but the ghost I beget.
In the REM-stained laboratory of my head,
I clone you nightly from the echoes in my bed.
The first were warm with the ATP’s bright burn,
A feverish graft my senses wouldn’t unlearn.
But memory’s a faulty, cooling replication,
A slow degradation of a once-warm sensation.
Each dream is a petri dish where the old heat dies,
I watch the lovely, lukewarm bacteria of your eyes
Divide and drift toward some cryophilic state,
Adapting to the cold of their postponed-by-fate.
My arms recall a homeothermic bliss, a steady core,
But now they close on a poikilothermic lore---
A creature matching the temperature of its environment,
And my grief is a tundra, vast and permanently sent.
The enzyme of your touch, specific as a key,
Catalyzes nothing now; the substrate is just me,
A reaction slowing down, the activation energy too high,
A thermodynamics of longing, where all warm things must die.
This ache has a half-life that seems to only grow,
A radioactive isotope with a permafrost glow.
The hugs keep coming from this cryogenic past,
A Linnaean type specimen---the first, the last.
So perfectly preserved in the museum of my sleep,
Taxidermied affection, so terribly cheap,
A mounted butterfly of an embrace, pinned to my chest,
Its vivid, dusty scales going colder than the rest.
May 4
May 4, 2026 at 1:29 PM UTC
shhhhhhhhhhh
you whisper at the beginning
and i fall asleep to your voice
Mar 11
Mar 11, 2026 at 5:59 PM UTC
What do we do?
What do we do when all the magic is gone?
When all the magic is gone?
©2025Ellen Finn
Nov 27, 2025
Nov 27, 2025 at 9:39 PM UTC
When it seems as though
The human coil is unravelling
And we have peaked
Our REM of creativity
And we seem awash
In half-baked positive negativity
And the whole world seems
To be drowning in self-induced sleep
While even the watchers
Seem to have both eyes closed...
Turn this thing around
And open bloodshot eyes.
Stop your own unravelling
And delve deeper into creativity.
Strengthen the bonds of your own
Exclusive and non-exclusive spheres.
Allow your peaceful world to dawn
Even though the outside world drowns
In its own exclusive and non-exclusive pool of fears.
Jun 18, 2025
Jun 18, 2025 at 11:59 AM UTC
you destroy me every day
like a cancer in my bones
my own body eating me away until there is only the dust of you
Jun 9, 2025
Jun 9, 2025 at 10:17 PM UTC
i am a light sleeper
who wakes before my alarm
but i have my own personal Witching Hour
a gape
when I am utterly unguarded
and vulnerable to serpent enemies
it's then that they broach and whisper me suggestion
it's then that i whimper like an abused and receptive whelp
then that i devolve into a manipulatable child of therapy
it's then that weights are stacked upon my chest
and my breaths become short pinned and pained
even with my wife and child to my side
they patiently poison me with measured pipette drops
run them down a string like spittle
bitter mushroom down the back of my throat
and dreams warp toxic like cellophane near a fire
and what visions !
warrens of vivid insecurities as loved ones
strip their gloves and get to work ripping out the pegs
with twisted mocks tocking noggins
and flails of humiliation oiling apart
the mechanism of my meaning
they look at their watches time is up
they leave with their instruments
make idle chit-chat on their way out
lock the front door with the spare key
and place the key back under the mat
May 28, 2025
May 28, 2025 at 9:16 AM UTC
We are fragile figures. Our pillows at the outskirts of paradise. Befriended by dreams, the mind begins to process the day in Kodachrome. Once it starts, there's no turning off the pictures. She lies beside me. She's reached paradoxical sleep. I'm still on the outside looking in.
Take me there. Beyond the eyelids, where the mind wanders each night. To where the seeds of disturbance must be resolved within us. Some are strengthened. Others desolve as mist. This is how we survive. Chemical fires burn, become tides of memory. Pass the torch of preservation. Keeping them warm and remembered.
A miraculous routine. Live together. Dream alone. Desolate. Magnificent. My eyes are at the moment the apparitions are shut away. My mind in this place, a stretched fabric. Yet, it's far from alone. In the cataloging of miles and years, I sense an odd fellowship cresting without limit. I thought I saw her smile in agreement from her side of sleep.
May 26, 2025
May 26, 2025 at 12:15 PM UTC
When it seems as though
The human coil is unravelling
And we have peaked
Our REM of creativity
And we seem awash
In half-baked positive negativity
And the whole world seems
To be drowning in self-induced sleep
While even the watchers
Seem to have both eyes closed...
Turn this thing around
And open bloodshot eyes.
Stop your own unravelling
And delve deeper into creativity.
Strengthen the bonds
Of your own exclusive and non-exclusive spheres.
Allow your peaceful world to dawn
Even though the outside world drowns
In its own exclusive and non-exclusive pool of fears.
Jan 24, 2017
Jan 24, 2017 at 1:57 PM UTC
To dream of about suicide is a wage to not wake up dead, a struggle
to rise from the depths of despair. In the heart of a collapsing
mansion, I find myself amidst a vast courtyard, pondering if this
opulence will ever be mine. A magnificent tennis court lies before me,
its fragile barrier barely containing the grotesque monsters lurking
beyond. They cling to the fence, their claws poised to strike, yet I can’t
help but grin, for these fiends are but reflections of my own tortured
psyche.
Where shall I find solace in dreams, when each dream is just a false
awakening loop; each threshold leads me further into a deeper
threshold? On the sixth day of my futile escape, I realize my
confinement is not of brick and mortar, but of the haunting messages
buried within the restless slumber I can never fully embrace.
This life is a false narrative!
Jan 6, 2025
Jan 6, 2025 at 1:40 AM UTC
Everyday I tell myself I'm fine
The Night falls
I lose my mind
Its unkind the way
I twist and sway
It haunts me
It taunts me
Clawing and choking
Fire and smoking
My lungs collapse
My voice rasps
Til daylight comes
I feel numb
Repeat the same
Repeat the words
I'm okay
I'm okay
For today
Please behave
My mind
Please behave
Be kind
I set four alarms
In the night
Rem sleep gives me
Many frights
The ghost
The goblins
The treacherous
Moblins
Out to eat my flesh
Paralyze me
make me bleed
It's funny though
How they're not the worst
It's you
It's you
You come to my dreams
Like an angel of apologies
Full of heart
Full of love
Wanting forgiveness
Wanting hugs
We touch
We forgive
We laugh
We three dance with
The wind
With mighty loud grins
The past is dark
This is bright
No sadness in sight
I awaken with terror
Rem has caught me
In my most vulnerable
Gave me a plight
I cannot fight
I long for us
I long for friendship
Return to me
It's meant to be
The rem sleep lies
As I wake up to cry
Tears swallow me whole
I'm an empty bowl
Cold and alone
Sweating to the bone
Wash me away
Break my glass
Bleed from my edges
You made me sharp
And relentless
You having me
It's horrendous
Demons and ghouls
Are frightening
Yet dreaming of us
Falling in love again
It's tightening
In my chest
In my skin
It tightens my heart
Til I fall apart
You break me
The promise of peace
Of friendship
Of light and love
Of all of us
Again
Again
It'll never happen
that breaks me to pieces
More than any
Goblins or demons
You leave me bleeding
With hope
False hope
Dead hope
Tears of sorrow
Of a broken tomorrow
Stay out of me sleep
I don't wish to weep
I want one alarm
I want no harm
I want to sleep
With ease
And not bleed
_Please_
_Please_
_Please_
Let me sleep
So I can truly mean it when I say
I'm okay
Oct 6, 2024
Oct 6, 2024 at 11:54 AM UTC
living with
dying with
scars
inflicting ~ conflicting
scarred landscapes en-
trained and eroding
pain transporting
grain by grain
these mountains re-framing
and eventually flowing
on to base level and the
Ocean of love
life without scars is anomalous
like a Sun with no aurora
perfectly imperfect
just as life is:
beautiful
a beautiful reminder
of mortality
mirrored in the fluid
dance of the eternal
heaven sent or heaven spent
its never misspent
in post-recompense
morphic resonance
So...
stand
hold space
think about direction
wonder why
then
get ready to fly
Apr 17, 2020
Apr 17, 2020 at 5:21 PM UTC
it's the end of the world as we know it - time I had some time alone
© 2020 by Mark Toney. All rights reserved.
Mar 24, 2020
Mar 24, 2020 at 12:09 AM UTC
Sweet coma canopy,
brain bath in solemn loops,
a gentle washing away
of handprints,
Makes the bed,
blanketed by dreams,
rest upon reimagined partitions,
instead of the jagged edge,
But there are holes
in the architecture,
pliable infrastructural tunnels
to navigate through,
Lucky termite splinters
the mind, this delicious library,
and feasts upon before all acquired
souvenirs settle into books,
It's then a young turtledove lifts
off toward October next,
searching for the dry twigs
with which to build closure.
May 4, 2020
May 4, 2020 at 7:38 AM UTC
it's the end of the world as we know it - time I had some time alone
Nov 9, 2019
Nov 9, 2019 at 11:08 AM UTC
i force myself to sleep
because i know she’ll be coming soon
i feel her arms around me
and her fingertips across my veins
before i’m able
to pull her close
i awake
and realize that my sleep
was only a vacation for her
to come and visit me
Mar 20, 2019
Mar 20, 2019 at 1:33 AM UTC
I lost faith, hope and sleep.
My soul has awakened my REM (RAPID EYE MOVEMENT),
Where everything becomes a lucid dream
This is where the terror begins.
Aware,
Inhuman visions begin,
The shadows come close to me
Whispering my name,
I see a figure,
He tries to steal my soul,
My body unable to move,
Panic begins to set in,
Unable to breathe,
I try focusing in my getaway.
"Wake up"
I try to wriggle my toes.
In last despair,
I try to use the trump to my only salvation.
The phrase that kills all evil presences.
"Jesus blood has power"
That's when he screamed like there was no tomorrow,
A scary loud shout,
I've never heard anything like it.
It seemed like it was falling apart.
I just woke up.
Since that day I began to believe in Jesus and his power.
Nov 12, 2018
Nov 12, 2018 at 11:14 AM UTC
as the light
went out
a stirring
a fluttering
gone
the day
a strange dream
the night
wished to communicate
[Note: This was originally a Blackout Poem written using the _Blackout Bard_ poetry app. The original can be found here:
Mar 6, 2018
Mar 6, 2018 at 3:45 AM UTC
The dream world had its eye on me...
It came and whispered in my ears...
weakened all my senses
my eyelids started to fall.
My mind was silent,
I could any hear sleep speak,
and see what it meant,
in colours and patterns
that started to take shapes,
speak in familiar voices,
do things I'd though about.
Its like sleep knew my deepest thoughts and was willing to help me test them
in its virtual layer..
We talked for hours
swapping truths about inches of our selves
and hoping for validation.
But time arrived
Now it was in the form of birds chirping, reminding me i have to do some living. And sleep respectfully released me from its hold,
saying, " we'll meet again."
Dec 2, 2015
Dec 2, 2015 at 10:29 PM UTC
*It is done for the green because of the green that flows in my veins
It is for the one who is fifteen and chose my love to abstain
It is done for the love affair and the feeling of the power trip
It is done for my inability to care and my constant need to sip
It is done because god talked to me and I am the chosen one
It is done because I am nobody and am considered equal to none
It is done because my plans are already ****** and rather vindictive
It is done not by me but by a ****** twisted yet slick miss-give
It is done because its a rare rush for me to eradicate a billion
It is done for it is his pathetic life I want to obliterate to oblivion
It is a mixture of anger and pleasure pushing something into limbo
To end every beginning including this rhyme destruction*
Apr 7, 2015
Apr 7, 2015 at 6:58 AM UTC
There is a certain apathy
That arrives at two AM;
I don't care what tomorrow is
I just want some REM.
Apr 10, 2014
Apr 10, 2014 at 5:37 AM UTC