Sleep Is A Beast Poem by Jenny Kalahar

Sleep is a beast rarely found
when searched for with open eyes.
It crawls from beneath your bed
when least expected,
won't obey your loudest calls,
won't take you below its welcoming surface
even if you beg

Sleep is milky black
before mutating into colors
shapes
people you once loved or feared.
Sleep becomes endless acreage without scent
or sense,
light illumes from nowhere,
longing seeps from everywhere,
the dead rise to comfort
then leave again without goodbyes

You awaken as a captive released
from a cell you'll instantly forget
or remember in your peripheral vision
your waking lifetime long