Poem: September 3, 2021

To Sleep

I think I’m looking forward.

Who can say what’s going on?

I sleep well enough. I’m comfortable,

but I wake up from dreams

that seem more vivid these days, 

from spaces that are concrete, 

so real, so real, and then I’m awake.

I mean really awake, the kind

of awake to start a day, ready.

Except it’s 2:38 and

nothing’s shaking, for goodness sake.

I think it must be nearly dawn.

Did I set the alarm? Did I forget

my medicine? Where are the cats?

But everything is fine. It’s fine.

It’s just the time and the fact 

that I’m awake, instantly awake.

And it’s not as if I struggle to return

to sleep. I can close my eyes and

drop plenty deep into the vivid spaces

and swim amidst my synapses

until I snap to again at 3:17.

I repeat to sleep, to sleep,

perchance to dream.