My Heavy Lids Poem by Chris Taylor

My thoughts run through my mind
like a marathon runner who pushes past the wall
Excerpts of today, yesterday and right now
Fill up behind my eyes and push my lids open

Up and down and pulsing with frenetic movement
You won’t quit: you 24 hr picture show
I starve you, I exhaust you, I medicate you
But your power over me is complete

I exist in a waking dreamland
and an intensely focussed night-time
Your attack on my sleep comes in waves
Like a four-star general’s war plan

You drain the enjoyment of my play
Like a faucet that can’t be tightened any more
Drip, drip, dreary
Eyes begin to close while driving

I view my world through puffy eyes and illusions
No amount of head shaking and cheek slapping
Can clear your enormous cob-web
I am caught in your effort

Oh Insomnia,
In the day, I can hear your siren’s call to my slumber
In the night, you are a lover who wishes just to fight
Time gets turned on its head

I age more rapidly
No nourishment of rest, no replenishment of the day’s efforts
The mirror reflects a stranger
A ghost who I feel I know in my heart, but can’t recognize its features

Cruel but cunning is your way
You addict to caffeine and enjoy its ravenous crash
Each day you sew another string to your marionette
lifting each limb with a terrible jerk

Great scissors, where are you
The giant pair my mother told me not to run with
Take your leading edge and cut from me my strings
Then the pressure will release and I will softly fall into deep slumber