just before dawn
sleep comes
like a painkiller -
the sky turns
a pale blue

give me Hamlet's cry
against dreams of such intent
that harrowed sleep's lull -
and mine too: the extended leg
of pulled muscle and I wake!

in my dream
words I no longer remember
penetrate the waking hours -
a hint of sunset
through darkening clouds

once
a midnight insomniac
when all my visions
ominous
like my wife's satori-yearning

after a wasted day
I feel
larger than life
unable to sleep
like a candle glaring

my center's
a bare dot
a bereft dot -
I sit silent
in this sauna world

the physical pain, too,
in my bones,
and still
it is vision, my visions,
worn thin these days. . .

no longer
does my beast in the jungle
taunt me with fears:
I open windows in the morning,
close them at night

sick all day,
ah, night falls -
and I confront
my sweeter visions
in this midnight cafe

visions
all spent
even after midnight
and I lay this self
down to sleep