All of My Nightmares are about Being Awake
I’m a supporter of ending this
breakfast early. The moon hasn’t left, yet
it’s 8 a.m. Always feels odd to me
when the moon watches the first coffee.
It’s the overstayed welcome, I guess.
The noise of not belonging.
My own misreading of astronomy
and the idiocy of expected outcomes.
I’m only haunted by the ogling creeper
of the novice horizon because I prefer
my moons gowned in black and sequin.
So all of my nightmares are about being awake.
What is it that beats behind the beating
of a heart? The moon with its tumultuous pull
of wherever water? One cardinal lifts off,
worm-beaked to break a greater humidity elsewhere.
Another, barrel-chested, St. Louis strawberry
of the air, stamps around angrily.
I wonder if the sun doubts itself and postures,
waiting on the loitering moon.
The sky is a collection of lost keys. No one has an answer.
On a Saturday morning in South City, 5th floor balcony,
enduring a rare sonata of quiet. I can’t hear the 14 bus,
but I watch as it swallows the offspring of Arsenal Ave.
This isn’t the day
she will leave me, yet
it feels like a rerun
I’m seeing for the first time.
Under this odd moonsun in the morning,
emotive of streetlights on cheap jewelry at midnight,
I watch candy wrappers run loose on the wind then
gang up again.
4 thoughts on "All of My Nightmares are about Being Awake"
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Too many great metaphors to paste.
Really like what this looks like on the page. Great shape.
The last stanza is gold.
So many great images. “moons gowned in black and sequin,” “the sky is a collection of lost key,” “emotive of streetlights on cheap jewelry at midnight.”
Beautiful piece. Love “What is it that beats behind the beating/of a heart?”
Every single word and line is so intentional and weighted; what a wonderfully crafted piece.