Sleepless

i lay there thinking about nothing, 

everything that was anything,

something that was nothing,

but was all things.

because--

the darkness my pupils hid under,

wrapping themselves up blanket-like,

was not black enough to black it all out.

"in"-expressing negation,

"somnus"- to sleep.

sheets choked the dreams away.

i swallowed the suffocation--

air-spider crawled on my face.

they swirled and swooshed around me:

velvet-bat thoughts infested my ears,

rustling the dark.

wiggled around my brain,

wings wrestling through thoughts.

scratched underneath the bed—

velvet-bat claws.

the dark tastes of stale air

percolating slowly,

open mouth smothered.

do the dead feel such endlessness?

Tick.

marching slowly

Tick.

an incessant reminder:

Tick.

asleep only in spirit.

goodbye, dream-baby, miscarriage of sleep.

kiss me goodnight? 

no one is here 

but velvet-bat thoughts.