demons and insomnia

when nightmares are too black
demons threaten beloved choices
beheaded lips mumble
insomnia saves you…
when nightmares are too real
discovering instant fear
skeletons from the present lovers
turn treason into tale
ceiling-staring remedy
worthy of hangover medicine…
when nightmares haunt hour after hour
insomnia's salvation chinks glasses
whiskey to invisible tears
neither cures a thing
for sheep have become wolves
black-cloaked riding hood caresses
her pointed witch hat
before hexing innocent women
mothers kill their newborn
refusing maternal milk
not even their husbands may suckle there…
we wonder, years later
why we fall off cliffs every night
awakening just in time
in breathless mid-fall
into sync with insomniac pleasures
complaining about dark eyes
a man's evil mascara imitation
or lugubrious creativity
four a. m. murky poetry
worthy of dreaming reality
which somehow
never quite resembles fiction…
secrets too closely revealed
books counseling dreamers
rarely welcome nightmares
for their power over the mind
preys on more than loving pain
hateful insomnia grants
a certain continuum for survival



demons and insomnia
20 june, 2006
(Poetic Paradise Daily Challenge)