Sleep: a poem

Sometimes what you need is sleep

and sometimes that's the same thing

as needing to never sleep again

and stay up till four am...okay five

watching every movie with Colin Firth

and then John Cusack

and then Meryl Streep

Because it's not that this cinephilic trance 

is what finally gets your brain to stop 

contorting and fritzing like broken neon

(although it does)

It's that wide eyes and tussled hair 

and twitches at the corners of mouths

and long Scandinavian noses

refresh and redefine for you the meaning

of the words

Human

Chimerical

One

The good kind of One

The not one One. The All for One.

The chimerically human one.

There are so many vulnerables

making, relating, exposing

so many it's bloody

and so I think

Thank God for Insomnia.

Matching Survey

Do you like 3 am Cake Boss?
How large is your library?
How many licks does it take to get the center of
whatever is at the center of you?
I don't want flowers. Do want kittens.
Are you camera shy?
Will you swear to wear mismatched socks
in sickness and in health?
Will you make me believe my pajama pants are sexy?
Check the box for
     creative
     gentle
     strong
     other
Will you be The Doctor for Halloween
and wear bow-ties to church on Sunday if I
asked you to?
An elephant's trunk can grasp something
as small as a peanut
yet rip a tree from the ground
roots and all, when needed.
With this in mind,
let me look closely at your hands, and see
how they feel against the skin
at the small of my back.

Sarah Allen

Morning Prayer

Morning Prayer

I forget

like dropping my sleep

mask on the floor by the bed,

not knowing where it is

when I come back at night.

The light comes in too early

these days and I forget

what I was dreaming

and how to close my eyes again.

My skin sucks in the chilly air

like gasping for breath

like a Christmas light buzzing, fritzing

and suddenly POP

a burst of light then darkness

and broken glass that will cut

if you're not careful.

I feel alive as broken glass.

Last night I dreamed a man came

into my room

to grab me, to hurt me

his hands were large, dirty when he

tied my wrists with rope.

But when I woke up into the cold

cold air

I was not afraid.