Fatigue Poem by Barry Middleton

a breaking wave descends
and still I cannot sleep
it's not a troubled mind
not thoughts too dark or deep

my body weighs me down
fatigue is crushing me
I sink into the tide
I'm trapped by gravity

this harbinger of death
would punish some great sin
I must have long forgot
I don't know where or when

exhaustion fills my lungs
it comes to torture me
I feel that I may drown
within a breathless sea

but I will fight this surge
that pulls me toward the flood
until I reach the shore
to rest my mortal blood