JUST SLEEP

JUST SLEEP

Now and again I want to just sleep.
Sleep like a baby awash in the womb,
Sleep like a dead man alone in his tomb,
While the world and all its busy minions
All around me scurry, in some goddamned hurry,
Climb their mountains steep.
Like some glorious has been,
Whose life has met a nasty end,
Like a spoiled child 'neath the Christmas tree,
Denied one last surprise,
I want my end to come quietly,
Eternal rest to touch my eyes with slumber,
No one to bother or encumber
With these salty, shady tears,
Mark my words and mark my years,
With a single granite stone.
Mark my final days,
With a dark and dismal haze.

Let me like the ivy around the tombstone creep,
Mark the spot like the ring of the oak,
Like some guarded prophecy
The soothsayer bespoke.
Let me like a garland
Wrap my body around the sky,
Leaving you alone to ponder
The wherefore and the why.
Shrug it off, shake it off,
Like a garment you no longer deign to keep,
Welcome me to the land,
That soft and velvet sand
Of bright cascading sleep.

Sleep that covers the bitter torn eyes,
Eyes that close in a soft velvet line,
Sleep that will burn a body to ash,
Sleep like a demon this earthly party crash,
Sleep like a harlot assured of her guilt,
After all her last secrets are spilt,
Nowadays I seem to fail every test,
And all I want is sleep now and rest.
Sleep like a baby awash in the womb,
Hormones and toxins await me.
In some great primordial soup,
That has thrown me for a loop.

Sleep like a dead man alone in the tomb,
With the ghost of predestination,
Already planning the next incarnation.
There is stiffness and failure in every breath.
So much stiffness and failure and yet,
In between the burial and the purple shroud,
The will to rise again screams loud.
Maybe I will be okay, hold on for yet another day,
To rise again tomorrow, take my pills that quell the sorrow.

'Til then just close these tired eyes and feel the misty tears
That arise and pool from somewhere deep.
Close my eyes to the precious final years,
Close my eyes and like a waterfall weep,
Dim all the lights and just sleep.

-Bruce Potts
Copyright 2015
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED