Challenging Poetry

insomnia

when I close my eyes
in the long minutes before
thoughts quiet into ephemeral
dreaming
visions erupt in fireworks
behind my eyes
reds fading into greens
faces blending into
weird amalgamations of
friends
acquaintances
and the stranger who walked
and smiled
as we passed the campus fountain

the voices who caught my daytime ear
repeat a jumble of phrases
some whispering
some shouting
some singing the background
that has plagued my consciousness
because I could not remember
the end
to the tune

and the words
I read
march up from their ink-stained pages
to paint my eyelids
charcoal grey
and my breath slows
and my mind
slips into the sanity
of dream

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