Sleep

Sleep evades me, a stunning impervious moth

Seemingly aloof on tireless wings escapes

Into the shadow of my mind’s eye; blackness now.

 

Oh how I have longed for the feel of those sweet wings,

Lacey and delicate, they guide my eyelids home

Into a land of blissful ignorance at last.

 

Only, this sleep is neither cheery nor obtuse.

Thoughts compound and expand, casting brilliant shapes.

The backs of my eyelids are vessels for my thoughts.

 

Melancholic I awake, sleep has been taken.

I’ve had enough my rough slumber finally snuffed,

I get up once more to work for a little cash.

 

And then I stay up, sleep now a sworn enemy.

Three or four days I have waited for its ambush,

Somnos overtakes me when I least expect him.

Reviews

[Tony Jordan]

You paint sleep here as a magnificent spectre or as a mischievous spirit that watches and waits - having it's sport - denying it when required and using it to immobilise when least appropriate.
Having experiened this for a while I can relate.
Nicely done.

[J.M. Wise]

Thanks, Tony. insomnia is a huge inconvenience, but it does offer some inner reflection. Glad you can relate and that you understand the issue. Thanks for reading!

[barleygirl]

Good job of painting the insomniac's torture! I like the way you start with an ephemeral metaphor like a moth fluttering, excellent details to show how it is seemingly out of reach, then finally building up to a more harsh-sounding ending as the crash of sleep finally comes.