DREAMS LIKE NIGHTMARES: A POEM

This may be or may not be a surprise but everyone sleeps at least at some point. I’ve always hated going to sleep, it feels like I’m missing something. I love the dead of night when the world seems at its most peaceful and its most volatile. Walking down a street, seeing curtains closed and the only light is from the moon and the obedient street lamps, that is perhaps my favorite part of any day. It can feel like I’m the only person awake and the world is visible only to me, I know it’s not true but it makes me feel alive for the briefest of moments. No matter how many midnight candles I burn the time inevitably comes when I must sleep. I wrote this following poem about that time. The time I eventually give in to my body and lay in my bed or on your couch, the time I let my eyes close and leave the rest to my body as I finally give in and lose all control over my thoughts and they turn themselves into dreams or nightmares.

DREAMS LIKE NIGHTMARES

Keep having dreams

They feel like nightmares

Only I’m not afraid

I’m not scared

When I turn out the lights

Close my eyes

Leave myself to the night

I dream about

Everything being alright

I’m not woken by a fright

But I’m in a cold sweat

Dreaming about everything

I tried so hard to forget

No demons from below

No demons from above

Just not ready to let go

Of the ghost of our love

My feet were slow

Moved on at a glacial pace

Don’t think of you anymore

But at night I see your face

Can still feel your hand

Reminded of your taste

Dreaming there’s still something to value

Waking to its waste

Keep having dreams

They feel so real

Warmed by your heart

Forgotten how it feels

The boomerang that came back to me

A dream so vivid

It temporarily replaces reality

With words you never said

But each morning

I wake in my bed

And you’re no longer there

Keep having this dream

Feels more like a nightmare