at night
i long for
the sleepiness
to crash against
the mania
as it crackles
smothering
the electrical
discharges
keeping my pulse
just out of time
to sleep
to escape
this rambunctious
hell inside
my hollow skull

i am unable
to understand how
my heartbeat
isn’t opening
great fissures
along the asphalt
overpasses swaying
concrete jump ropes
in a deadly game
of double dutch
as i spin
egyptian cotton
into a cocoon
to muffle all
the i love yous
crashing unheard
into the dirt

forever is an
impossibility
used to express
certain
fallacies
allowing
our brains
to translate
our heart and soul
for an unbelieving
world to ignore
a series of segues
between temporary
permanencies

poets are
butterflies
born without
mouths
starving to death
in a painful
show of beautifully
incompetent perseverance